LONDON, UK (Top40 Charts/ IFPI) - The
Beatles have gone to the top of the European sales charts for the last decade, winning a ninth prestigious IFPI Platinum
Europe Award for their greatest hits album 1. The awards have marked the sales of more than a million album copies across
Europe since their launch in 1996.
13 albums gained IFPI Platinum Europe Award status for the first time in the last three months of the 2007. Artists as diverse as Andrea Bocelli and Timbaland, Charles Aznavour and Rihanna, had albums that crossed the million sales threshold.
Two albums gained IFPI Platinum Europe Award status in their first quarter of release - Katie Melua's Pictures and Eros Ramazzotti's E2. Rihanna was the only artist to pick up awards for two albums in the quarter as A Girl Like Me and Good Girl Gone Bad both notched up a million sales across Europe, with the latter collecting its third award of the year.
Other big sellers in the final quarter of 2007 were James Blunt, who picked up his sixth award for Back to Bedlam and Green Day whose American Idiot achieved its fourth award.
In 2007 as a whole, 57 albums received an IFPI Platinum Europe Award, compared with 46 albums in 2006. European acts accounted for 61 per cent of the awards, with US artists picking up 33 per cent of the awards.
While no albums have yet surpassed the nine IFPI Platinum Europe Awards achieved by 1, Canadian artist Celine Dion has matched the figure with nine awards respectively for Falling Into You and Let's Talk About Love.
ARTIST ALBUM TITLE COMPANY AWARD LEVEL
ALEX UBAGO QUE PIDES TU? WARNER 1
ANDREA BOCELLI AMORE UNIVERSAL 1
AVRIL LAVIGNE THE BEST DAMN THING SONY BMG 1
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN MAGIC SONY BMG 1
CHARLES AZNAVOUR 20 CHANSONS DIOR EMI 1
CHRISTOPHE MAE MON PARADIS WARNER 1
EAGLES LONG ROAD OUT OF EDEN UNIVERSAL 1
EROS RAMAZZOTTI E2 SONY BMG 1
KATIE MELUA PICTURES DRAMATICO 1
MICHAEL BUBLE CALL ME IRRESPONSIBLE WARNER 1
RIHANNA A GIRL LIKE ME UNIVERSAL 1
THE CRANBERRIES STARS - THE BEST OF THE CRANBERRIES 1992-2002 UNIVERSAL 1
TIMBALAND SHOCK VALUE UNIVERSAL 1
JACK JOHNSON IN BETWEEN DREAMS UNIVERSAL 2
MELANIE C NORTHERN STAR EMI 2
OST 8 MILE UNIVERSAL 2
AMY WINEHOUSE BACK TO BLACK UNIVERSAL 3
MIKA LIFE IN CARTOON MOTION UNIVERSAL 3
PINK FLOYD ECHOES - THE BEST OF PINK FLOYD EMI 3
RIHANNA GOOD GIRL GONE BAD UNIVERSAL 3
GREEN DAY AMERICAN IDIOT WARNER 4
JAMES BLUNT BACK TO BEDLAM WARNER 6
THE BEATLES 1 EMI 9
Awards by month & year
For futher information contact:
IFPI Communications Department
Tel: +44 (0)20 7878 7935
About Platinum Europe Awards
Platinum Europe Awards honour the elite community of artists who have achieved sales of one million copies of an album in Europe. The Awards were launched in 1996 and they are now recognised as the established hallmark of success for artists in Europe.
