France best selling albums ever: Yannick Noah by Yannick Noah (2000)
After three pretty unknown albums – minus Saga Africa hit following Davis Cup victory celebration – the Yannick Noah eponymous fourth record was far from being a A-List release. With such a context, debuting at #27 was quite fine.
Sticking inside the Top 100 since eight months, Yannick Noah album had yet to out-peak its debut by May 2001. At that point, Bob Marley-esque #3 second single La Voix Des Sages (No More Fighting) took over the disc promotion and boosted the album in great fashion, improving 54-49-39-27-12-9-5. The summer was definitely bright for this release, reaching #1 two month later when it dropped Manu Chao‘s Proxima Estacion Esperanza from its perch.
Slowing down to Top 20 during Christmas season due to stiff competition, the album went back up to #3 in February 2002 and remained Top 15 every week until August. It was still as high as #17 one week before being excluded from charts due to 2-year limit in November. This happened some seven months after the album Diamond certification.
By September 2003, it was close to 1,5 million copies sold, among them some 120,000 copies outside France. Yannick Noah kept selling huge amounts during many years thanks to the unparalleled popularity reached by the singer during the 00s. Yearly sales stand as below:
- 2000: 70,000
- 2001: 720,000
- 2002: 490,000
- 2003: 110,000
- 2004: 90,000
- 2005: 50,000
- 2006: 30,000
- 2007: 20,000
- 2008: 10,000
- 2009: 10,000
- 2010-2015: 30,000
- 2/3CD boxes: 20,000
Net shipment as of the end of 2015 is estimated at 1,650,000 copies.
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Sources: SNEP, IFOP, RFI Musique.