France best selling albums ever:
Summary 1980-1989

Male Albums

01 Michael Jackson – Thriller (1982) : 3 745 000
02 Patrick Bruel – Alors Regarde (1989) : 2 190 000
03 Francis Cabrel – Sarbacane (1989) : 1 975 000
04 Bob Marley – Legend (1984) : 1 895 000
05 Michael Jackson – Bad (1987) : 1 785 000
06 Jean-Jacques Goldman – Non Homologué (1985) : 1 740 000
07 Jean-Jacques Goldman – Entre Gris Clair Et Gris Foncé (1987) : 1 650 000
08 Francis Cabrel – Cabrel 77-87 (1987) : 1 520 000
09 Renaud – Morgane De Toi (1983) : 1 480 000
10 Jacques Brel – 15 Ans D’Amour (1988) : 1 460 000

Predictably, giving the weak number of female and band albums over 1 million, the male section is incredibly strong. The first eight albums include three artists with two albums each. The absolute winner of the decade is Michael Jackson with his cult release Thriller owning a tremendous lead over the second although that one is the second top seller overall. In fact the gap to the runner up is bigger than sales of the #1 female album of the 80s. In spite of local acts massively dominating the decade, his second album Bad is also # 5 among male albums, behind Bob Marley‘s Legend, making it three foreign releases inside the Top 5.

As for local acts who occupy the remaining seven spots, they are led by Francis Cabrel at #3 and #8, an incredible performance giving the fact he was already #1 and #6 among male acts for the 90s. His album Fragile is #16. One artist still has more million sellers, the same one that had the most million sellers in the 90s, Jean-Jacques Goldman. His two classic albums are #6 and #7 but he is also #13 with Positif and #21 with Minoritaire. Although only one features inside the Top 10, Renaud must also be noted as he is up there at #9 with Morgane De Toi and #14 with Mistral Gagnant, both released in the worst period of sales.