Biggest selling artists worldwide in 2009

2009 is officially over and as always there is endless countdowns of the biggest singles/albums domestically and internationally, but the one chart I'm most interested in, is who dominated the charts Worldwide. It is no surprise to find that our very own Susan Boyle is the biggest artist of the year with 6 million units shifted in just over a month, narrowly beating Lady Gaga who sold 5.9 million units but had an extra 10 1/2 months to do so.



However the act that unsurprisingly dominates the worldwide album charts in 2009 is the late Michael Jackson, who has 6 albums in the Top 25 which combined total 21 million units ( a figure likely to be closer to 23 million units when factoring in his other albums). An astonishing feat by any artist, but sad under the circumstances in which they were sold.



Other winners were Black Eyed Peas who dominated the charts this year all around the world, selling 4.6 million albums who have had an amazing year worldwide with their latest album producing 3 massive singles.



Below is a countdown of the top 40 album sellers worldwide in 2009.


1 Susan Boyle - I Dreamed A Dream 6,0 million copies
2 Lady GaGa - The Fame (Monster) - 5,9 million copies
3 Black Eyed Peas - The E.N.D. - 4,6 million copies
4 Taylor Swift - Fearless - 4,2 million copies
5 Michael Jackson - Thriller (25th Anniversary Reissue) - 4,0 million copies
6 Michael Jackson - Number Ones - 3,6 million copies
7 U2 - No Line On The Horizon - 3,5 million copies
8 Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night - 3,5 million copies
9 Michael Bublé - Crazy Love - 3,3 million copies
10 Beyoncé - I Am... Sasha Fierce - 3,2 million copies
11 Michael Jackson - This Is It - 3,1 million copies
12 Michael Jackson - The Essential - 2,9 million copies
13 Hannah Montana: The Movie - 2,9 million copies
14 Andrea Bocelli - My Christmas - 2,9 million copies
15 Eminem - Relapse - 2,9 million copies
16 Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown - 2,6 million copies
17 Pink - Funhouse - 2,6 million copies
18 Twilight OST - 2,4 million copies
19 Michael Jackson - King Of Pop - 2,0 million copies
20 Michael Jackson - Bad - 2,0 million copies
21 Jay-Z - Blueprint 3 - 1,9 million copies
22 Nickelback - Dark Horse - 1,9 million copies
23 Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You - 1,7 million copies
24 Michael Jackson - Dangerous - 1,7 million copies
25 Michael Jackson - Off The Wall - 1,7 million copies
26 Muse - The Resistance - 1,6 million copies
27 Whitney Houston - I Look To You - 1,6 million copies
28 Bruce Springsteen - Working On A Dream 1,6 million copies
29 Jason Mraz - We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. 1,6 million copies
30 Miley Cyrus - The Time Of Our Lives - 1,5 million copies
31 Coldplay - Viva La Vida - 1,5 million copies
32 Robbie Williams - Reality Killed The Video Star- 1,5 million copies
33 Arashi - All The Best! (1999-2009) - 1,5 million copies
34 New Moon OST - 1,5 million copies
35 Madonna - Celebration - 1,4 million copies
36 Britney Spears - Circus - 1,3 million copies
37 Soundtrack - Mamma Mia!- 1,3 million copies
38 Kelly Clarkson - All I Ever Wanted - 1,3 million copies
39 Beatles - Abbey Road- 1,3 million copies
40 Katy Perry - One Of The Boys - 1,3 million copies

This years big album sellers

For all you number crunchers out there, here is a list of some of this years biggest selling albums

1,576,982 Susan Boyle - I Dreamed A Dream
1,332,805 Lady Gaga - The Fame
1,153,065 Michael Buble - Crazy Love
1,084,566 Beyonce - I Am.... Sasha Fierce (sales up to Dec 20th)
1,049,899 Black Eyed Peas - The E.N.D.
943,860 JLS - JLS
752,377 Paolo Nutini - Sunny Side Up
728,189 Robbie Williams - Reality Killed The Video Star
608,127 Cheryl Cole - 3 Words
548,569 Leona Lewis - Echo
538,561 Snow Patrol - Up To Now
524,186 Queen- Absolute Greatest
414,450 Take That - Circus Live
412,607 Will Young - The Hits
411,378 Westlife - Where We Are

2,199,509 Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night - sales combined from 2008 and 2009 (over a million copies sold in 2009)

Rage Against The Machine secure Christmas No.1

After the massive backlash about X Factor's dominance over the Christmas No.1's in recent years, the facebook group that was set up to challenge the Christmas No.1 has been successful. The song chosen to challenge Joe's "The Climb" was Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name". The final figures were 502,600 to Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name" and 450,800 to Joe McElderry's "The Climb".

Rage against the machine pulled an early lead at the start of the week, but it was feared that Joe would pull ahead when the physical single was released this Wednesday (RATM didn't have a physical single available for release). With close midweek figures on Friday's midweeks, it was thought that Joe would pull away come Sundays official announcement, but with all the press coverage garnered from the facebook campaign, the British public rallied behind the campaign and ensured that RATM secured the coverted No.1 spot (full breakdown of day by day sales figures at the bottom).

Here are the video's for each song as well as an amazing mash-up of "Killing In The Name" to X Factor clips.

Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name



Joe McElderry - The Climb



Parody of Killing in the Name with X Factor clips



Below is a list of sales figures for each day, along with the final figures:

Tuesday Midweeks
1 Rage Against The Machine 83k
2 Joe McElderry 77k

Wednesday Midweeks
No data released

Thursday Midweeks
1 Rage Against The Machine 253k
2 Joe McElderry 216k

Friday Midweeks
01 Rage Against The Machine 306,115
02 Joe McElderry 297,192

Final Figures
01 Rage Against The Machine 502,600
02 Joe McEldery 450,800

Susan Boyle - Breaking Records

The scottish lass is a force to be reckoned with as her album in its second week on the UK charts once again hits the top spot selling a whopping 303,708 copies this week, bringing its 2 week total to 715,528!!!!

She is on course to get the record for the fastest selling debut record to sell a million copies. That title is currently held by another reality artist, Leona Lewis who managed the feat in just under 4 weeks, though Susan looks likely to achieve this in around 21 days.

A true hollywood story if ever there was one, Susan Boyle should be an inspiration to everyone and definitely has proved to a lot of people that you should never judge a book by its cover!

Top 40 Selling Songs of the Decade

Below are the Top 40 biggest selling songs of this decade - an updated list will be published once this year is out.

Unsurprisingly, the top 10 records are full of reality contestants, with 5 of the 10 records in the Top 10 being from Talent Competitions such as X Factor and Pop Stars.

It is also refreshing to see that in the last 12 months, we have had a couple of artists rapidly approach the 1 million mark who aren't from a reality show, proving that the industry is still alive and capable of producing big selling singles (Kings Of Leon and Lady Gaga)

However this decade's title goes to Will Young the winner of the first Pop Idol show with his debut single "Evergreen/Anything Is Possible"

Below is a list of the Top 40 singles of the decade with their respective sales.


1. Will Young - Evergreen/Anything Is Possible 1,795,000
2. Gareth Gates - Unchained Melody 1,400,000
3. Shaggy - It Wasn't Me 1,200,000
4. Alexandra Burke – Hallelujah 1,161,650
5. Band Aid 20 - Do They Know It's Christmas 1,150,000
6. Tony Christie - Is This The Way To Amarillo 1,137,000 (1,197,000)
7. Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out Of My Head 1,104,000
8. Shayne Ward - That's My Goal 1,100,000
9. Hear'Say - Pure & Simple 1,080,000
10. Bob The Builder - Can We Fix It 1,010,000

11. Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love 971,500
12. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy 970,000
13. Atomic Kitten - Whole Again 965,000
14. Kings of Leon – Sex On Fire 865,705
15. Leona Lewis - A Moment Like This 862,000
16. Lady GaGa – Poker Face 848,580
17. Enrique Iglesias - Hero 835,000
18. X Factor Finalists – Hero 802,000
19. DJ Otzi - Hey Baby 776,000
20. Eminem ft Dido - Stan 772,000

21. Westlife - Uptown Girl 768,000
22. Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling 762,790
23. Lady GaGa – Just Dance 749,115
24. S Club7 - Don't Stop Moving 742,000
25. All Saints - Pure Shores 721,000
26. Nelly & Kelly Rowland - Dilemma 710,000
27. Baha Men - Who Let The Dogs Out 707,000
28. Elvis vs JXL - A Little Less Conversation 700,000
29. Take That - Rule The World 686,925
30. Kings of Leon – Use Somebody 681,310

31. Rihanna - Umbrella 670,000
32. La Roux – In For The Kill 651,225
33. Sonique - Feels So Good 650,000
34. Black Eyed Peas - Where Is The Love 641,500
35. Girls Aloud - Sound Of The Underground 635,000
36. James Blunt - You're Beautiful 635,000
37. Cheryl Cole – Fight For This Love 632,090
38. Shakira - Whenever Wherever 631,000
39. S Club 7 - Never Had A Dream Come True 630,000
40. Robbie Williams - Rock DJ 629,000

UK Charts

Lady Gaga has once again hit the top spot with her new single "Poker Face" with only 221 copies seperating the Top 2, the comic relief songs take a subsequent fall and end up back down at 3 and 4 respectively. Beyonce is now the one to watch as she races up the chart with new single "Halo" climbing from No.20 to this weeks No.9.



1 4 LADY GAGA POKER FACE 53,699
2 2 FLO RIDA FT KESHA RIGHT ROUND 53,478
3 1 JENKINS/WEST ISLANDS IN THE STREAM 40,478
4 3 SATURDAYS JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH 34,633
5 5 TAYLOR SWIFT LOVE STORY 33,922
6 7 TI FT JT DEAD AND GONE 31,353
7 6 KELLY CLARKSON MY LIFE WOULD SUCK 30,030
8 9 AKON BEAUTIFUL 25,565
9 20 BEYONCE HALO 25,122
10 8 KINGS OF LEON USE SOMEBODY 19,637


On the album charts, in the battle for the mothers day album, Ronan Keating came out on top, whilst Lionel who has been in the UK all week promoting his new album could only just scrape the Top 10.



1 (NEW) RONAN KEATING SONGS FOR MY MOTHER 87,030
2 (2) ANNIE LENNOX THE COLLECTION 52,317
3 (4) KINGS OF LEON ONLY BY THE NIGHT 40,964
4 (6) FARYL FARYL 40,350
5 (9) TAKE THAT THE CIRCUS 37,642
6 (1) U2 NO LINE ON THE HORIZON 30,199
7 (8) LADY GAGA THE FAME 28,214
8 (3) KELLY CLARKSON ALL I EVER WANTED 27,373
9 (21) BETTE MIDLER THE BEST BETTE 25,031
10 (NEW) LIONEL RICHIE JUST GO 22,618

UK Top 10 Single and Album Charts

This week sees a new number one in the form of comic relief's "Islands in the Stream" by Ness and Glyn from Gavin and Stacey.

1 NEW JENKINS/WEST ISLANDS IN THE STREAM 87,177
2 1 FLO RIDA RIGHT ROUND 66,493
3 2 SATURDAYS JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH 63,433
4 3 LADY GAGA POKER FACE 55,293
5 5 TAYLOR SWIFT LOVE STORY 42,907
6 4 KELLY CLARKSON MY LIFE WOULD SUCK 42,050
7 6 TI FT J T DEAD AND GONE 38,334
8 11 KINGS OF LEON USE SOMEBODY 26,052
9 13 AKON BEAUTIFUL 22,418
10 NEW OASIS FALLING DOWN 21,448

Over on the album charts, U2 just manage to hold on to the top spot, with new entries by Annie Lennox and Kelly Clarkson vying for that coveted top spot. Also new entries this week from Taylor Swift and Faryl keep the top 10 interesting.

1 1 U2 NO LINE ON THE HORIZON 44,261
2 NEW ANNIE LENNOX THE COLLECTION 42,649
3 NEW KELLY CLARKSON ALL I EVER WANTED 39,858
4 3 KINGS OF LEON ONLY BY THE NIGHT 37,064
5 NEW TAYLOR SWIFT FEARLESS 33,829
6 NEW FARYL FARYL 29,172
7 2 PRODIGY INVADERS MUST DIE 26,892
8 4 LADY GAGA THE FAME 23,597
9 7 TAKE THAT THE CIRCUS 17,298
10 5 LILY ALLEN IT'S NOT ME IT'S YOU 15,666

UK Charts - Kelly Clarkson and Prodigy rule

In the singles chart, Kelly Clarkson makes a massive leap from No.102 to No.1, and impressive jumps also are incurred by Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and TI and Justin Timberlake at No.2, 3 and 4 respectively.



1 (103) KELLY CLARKSON MY LIFE WOULD SUCK... 51,114
2 (22) TAYLOR SWIFT LOVE STORY 33,261
3 (15) LADY GAGA POKER FACE 32,338
4 (17) TI FT JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE DEAD AND GONE 31,733
5 (1) LILY ALLEN THE FEAR 30,961
6 (2) LADY GAGA JUST DANCE 28,408
7 (3) KINGS OF LEON USE SOMEBODY 27,167
8 (6) SHONTELLE T-SHIRT 24,934
9 (10) PUSSYCAT DOLLS/MISSY WHATCHA THINK ABOUT 24,034
10 (5) ALESHA DIXON BREATHE SLOW 20,929

In the album charts, Prodigy return to the top of the album chart with their first album in 4 years "Invaders Must Die" but the real winner this week is the Kings Of Leon who at No.2 who this week went 5 times platinum in the UK selling over 1.524 million copies.



1 (NEW) PRODIGY INVADERS MUST DIE 97,254
2 (1) KINGS OF LEON ONLY BY THE NIGHT 58,636
3 (2) LILY ALLEN IT'S NOT ME IT'S YOU 29,507
4 (4) DUFFY ROCKFERRY 23,251
5 (7) LADY GAGA THE FAME 19,393
6 (5) ELBOW THE SELDOM SEEN KID 19,355
7 (8) TING TINGS WE STARTED NOTHING 16,565
8 (16) TAKE THAT THE CIRCUS 15,861
9 (10) FLEET FOXES FLEET FOXES 14,829
10 (6) KILLERS DAY & AGE 14,279