In 1990, Jean-Jacques Goldman already proved switching from solo albums to be a part of a trio was a brilliant idea as he repeated his past success easily. In 1993, at the time of releasing a second studio album, the trio Fredericks Goldman Jones target was proving themselves successful in the long run.
In the same way several divas exploded internationally at the time, years 1988-1991 saw the first two female superstars in France emerge: Mylène Farmer and Patricia Kaas. They released two million selling albums each in those years. With 1993 record Je Te Dis Vous, Patricia Kaas was the first to face the three-peat challenge.
Celine Dion struggled to sell records in France. Yes, for real. What may seem absolutely impossible from today point of view giving the insane amount of records she sold since 1995, was true until the release of D’Eux.
Often compared to Jean-Jacques Goldman because of his ability to score hits both as a singer or as a songwriter for other popular artists, Pascal Obispo struggled a lot before making a real impact.
Unlike Francis Cabrel or Patrick Bruel the artist Jean-Jacques Goldman didn’t have a signature album that sold over 2 million units. That may be why he isn’t the first one we think about when referring to monster sellers. Success-wise yet he crushes everyone.
New Kids In The Block in the US, Take That in UK… Worlds Apart in France. Yes, this isn’t a joke. If Take That success has been huge since their 1992 debut on their native UK, Worlds Apart has been a flopping band from day 1. Their debut album peaked at #88 at the time and no subsequent album ever charted. View More
En Passant literally means “by the way”. This is exactly how Jean-Jacques Goldman achieves new million sellers, effortlessly, just like that. This 1997 album was no exception.
There is no secret that Celine Dion album D’Eux is the best selling of all-time in France. Written by Jean-Jacques Goldman, the winning pair joined their skills again with French follow up album S’Il Suffisait D’Aimer. While reproducing sales of the previous album was near impossible, selling massive amounts was a given from day one.
After two albums which sold over 4,5 million together, the 1999 comeback of Francis Cabrel was one of the most anticipated of all-time. Hardly the most active act when it comes to promotion, the poetic singer crushed absolutely everyone in terms of sales per album during a decade, even the likes Johnny Hallyday, Patrick Bruel or Jean-Jacques Goldman.
Since almost three weeks we have been going threw all million selling albums since 2000 in France. Pre-2000 albums will shortly follow, but it is time to stop for a minute in order to summarize all results. On following pages, you will be presented with various rankings of bestselling Studio album, Foreign album, Female album etc. with short comments per section. Obviously, the comprehensive ranking is also presented, containing all 44 million sellers released during our century. Let’s go!