The Beatles Win 'Artist Of The Year (International)' At Japan Gold Disc Awards

TOKYO, JAPAN (Top40 Charts/ RIAJ) - The ceremony of the 24th Japan Gold Disc Awards, sponsored by RIAJ (Recording Industry Association of Japan), was held, and The Beatles won "Artist of the Year (International)", one of the grand prizes of the award. Artists are awarded based on the total net sales value of their albums/tracks released during the period, 1st January 09 - 31st December 09.

The Beatles won the award with the total sales of 619,955 units, but as the digital re-mastered The Beatles boxed set and The Beatles In Mono released on 9th September 09 were counted as one unit per box set, their actual total sales were more than 2.5M units in terms of total albums.

This is the fourth time The Beatles have received this award since the Japan Gold Disc Awards were launched in 1987, the second highest number of wins after Madonna who has won five times.

This is a great achievement and shows that The Beatles still have enormous popularity in Japan.

Other awards for EMI Music Japan were:

- Norah Jones "The Fall": Jazz Album of the Year: For a Jazz album released during the period with the top net unit sales. Norah Jones has now received this award four times making all her albums in Japan award-winning.

- Sarah Brightman "Amalfi": Classic Album of the Year: For a Classic album release during the period with the top net unit sales. "Amalfi - Sarah Brightman Love Songs" is a Japan-only special album compiling Sarah Brightman's love songs. This is her second successive award following "A Winter Symphony" last year, and her third honour overall.