Yearly Most Successful Female Album: The New Generation (1999-2017)
2008 – Lady Gaga – The Fame (Monster)
With the explosion of social Medias, wars between fans of Divas reached a new level. To be fair, females got so big in 2008 that talking about them was inevitable.
The flagship of this madness is no other than Lady Gaga. Her single Just Dance needed several months to break the main audience but when it did, the hit machine was on. Pokerface was soon a ground breaking smash. LoveGame, Paparazzi, singles from the Monster reissue Bad Romance, Telephone and Alejandro, everything was massive. A true golden era full of hits and creator of sales from all fronts in insane amounts. All versions of the album went on to sell more than 16 million units while its singles moved over 70 million downloads and ringtones. Nearly 4 million albums were also sold on the back of its songs through EPs and Remix efforts.
This bonanza closed in more than 32 million equivalent album sales, making it the biggest female era since the pair of blockbusters from 1997, Let’s Talk About Love and Come On Over by Celine Dion and Shania Twain. Impressive!
Challengers
For the second time in a row, a huge success of Beyoncé had to settle for #2 because of heavy competition. This time the album blocked at the runner up spot is I Am… Sasha Fierce. Possibly the most iconic urban female album since The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, its tally of 17 million equivalent album sales will keep going up thanks to the impressive lasting appeal of songs like Halo, Single Ladies and If I Were A Boy.
Taylor Swift extended her success to the World after dominating the US with the album Fearless. At more than 15 million album sales created, this era could have been easily #1 in other years. Around 12 million and a half there is Adele with 19 and P!nk with Funhouse. Katy Perry debuts big with over 9 million comprehensive sales for her One of the Boys era. Circus by Britney Spears follows. Gaga, Beyoncé, Swift, Adele, P!nk, Perry, Spears… they were all there, what a year!
There was more, Madonna recorded her last 5 million plus era with Hard Candy in 2008 too. Duffy sold tons of albums, especially in Europe, with her album Rockferry. The lead single Mercy was a huge hit.