France Best Selling Albums Ever:
Update Part 5

Musical – Notre-Dame de Paris (1998) : 2 830 000

One of the Top 5 all-time best selling albums in France, Notre-Dame de Paris era was so huge that it also brought one of the Top 5 highest selling single, plus a secondary edition that sold over 1 million copies on its own. To be honest, all such expanded editions released in the 00s got incorporated into sales of the original album. It wasn’t done way back in 1998 because chart rules weren’t that complex, not defining such cases, although the extension is a live set. Had both versions been merged, we would be talking about a 4 million selling album. Constantly charting Top 500 at Amazon.fr, even if their target audience is favorable on that platform this is still a meaningful indicator of ongoing popularity.

U2 – Best Of 1980-1990 (1998) : 1 215 000

Best Of 1980-1990 is one more album that failed to chart completely in 2016 but which remains relevant though. In spite of the 18 Singles release in 2006, this 1998 record is not dead. U2 catalog is obviously highly rated in France, with various records doing well. Best Of 1980-1990 belongs to this group by sitting more often than not inside Amazon.fr Top 300. With the band Joshua Tree Tour in 2017, expect some serious activity from the compilation to come soon.

Mylène Farmer – Les Mots (2001) :  1 555 000

In a way similar to Michel Sardou, Calogero or Patrick Bruel, the catalog of Mylène Farmer is crowded by so many large selling Live albums coming out again and again that her past compilations aren’t selling too well nowadays. Once marketed as the highest selling compilation ever in France, Les Mots is performing nowhere near as well as some of its more serious challengers like Jean-Jacques Goldman album Singulier. Not re-entering in years, even when new albums came out, Les Mots still moves some copies every week, ranking currently Top 1,000 at Amazon.fr.