France best selling albums ever: Let’s Talk About Love by Celine Dion (1997)
Getting the highest selling album in a calendar of all-time in 1995 (with D’Eux) was already a unique achievement. Getting three albums inside the Top 10 Year End chart of 1996 was just as spectacular. One may guess how anticipated Celine Dion 1997 major release Let’s Talk About Love was. We won’t even mention the artist was soon to be massively hyped thanks to her Titanic soundtrack signature song.
After exactly one month the album was already certified 2xPlatinum for 600,000 sales. It wasn’t surprising as the record topped charts during seven weeks during the Christmas season. Let’s Talk About Love kept selling well in early 1998, quickly gaining Diamond status in April. Titanic soundtrack, Live A Paris and Falling Into You were all certified on April 28th, meaning the record was likely eligible some weeks earlier.
The pace of sales remained strong until August and still decent in last months of 1998. As a consequence, the album almost catched the #8 year end position in 1998 by ending 1997 as the 9th bestseller. It sold more in 1998 yet, 750,000 compared to 650,000 the previous year. This record gave Celine Dion her best selling English-language album of her career in France.
By 2000, the album was up to 1,5 million copies sold in France. Selling 50,000 units in 2000-2002, the album added 32,000 sales as per GFK from 2003 to 2008. It sold over 25,000 copies since.
Net shipment as of the end of 2015 is estimated at 1,610,000 copies.
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Sources: SNEP, IFOP, GFK, Consumer Goods Europe.