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Official Top 20 Biggest Selling Singles Of All Time By Female Artists
08 March 2017 | By Rob Copsey

To celebrate International Women’s Day, we reveal the UK’s Official Top 40 biggest singles by female artists of all time.

Today (March 8) marks International Women’s Day – the annual celebration of the economic, political, and social achievements of women across the globe.

If there’s one thing the Official Singles Chart would be pretty dull without, it’s female singers, and to honour the musical achievements of women, we are counting down the UK’s Official Top 20 biggest selling singles of all time by female artists.

Leading the way is a woman who's pop career spans over 50 years: Cher. Her Number 1 hit Believe, which spent seven weeks at the summit in 1998, has sold 1.82 million copies in the UK (excluding streams). It's somewhat fitting that Cher tops this list; her latest reinvention as a prolific social media/anti-Trump activist has seen her become one of the leading voices in the music world for social and political change.

Behind Cher is another celebrated voice – the late, great Whitney Houston. Whitney, who passed away in February 2012, spent a whopping ten weeks at Number 1 with I Will Always Love You, taken from the soundtrack of hit movie The Bodyguard. The track, which was written and originally recorded by country star Dolly Parton, has sold 1.63 million copies in the UK alone.

A more recent entry on the biggest selling singles by female acts comes from Adele, who places third with Someone Like You. The track, which has sold 1.62 million, took over the world in February 2011 and logged a total of five weeks at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart.

Coming in fourth is another one of the world's most recognisable voices - Celine Dion with her global smash My Heart Will Go On. Released in 1998 as the theme to Titanic, the song spent two non-consecutive weeks at Number 1 in the UK and has sold 1.57 million to date. Celine makes a second entry on the list, at Number 9 with her 1994 single Think Twice (1.37m).

Oh baby, baby, you knew Britney had to be in here somewhere, right? And here she is completing the Top 5. Her debut single …Baby One More Time spent just two weeks at Number 1 in 1999, but it sure shifted plenty of copies while it was there. Its sales tally stands at over 1.55 million – it sold over 460,000 copies in its first week on sale.

Elsewhere in the Top 20, the Spice Girls feature twice with their 1996 chart-toppers Wannabe (1.38m) and 2 Become 1 (1.13m), as does Rihanna with We Found Love (1.41m) and Only Girl (In The World) (1.16m).

The oldest song on the list is Jennifer Rush's 1985 hit The Power Of Love (1.45m), while the most recent goes to Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe, released in 2012 (1.35m).

The Official Top 20 Biggest Selling Singles By Female Artists In The UK Are...

POS TITLE ARTIST YEAR
1 BELIEVE CHER 1998 1,820,000
2 I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU WHITNEY HOUSTON 1992 1,630,000
3 SOMEONE LIKE YOU ADELE 2011 1,620,000
4 MY HEART WILL GO ON CELINE DION 1998 1,570,000
5 ...BABY ONE MORE TIME BRITNEY SPEARS 1999 1,550,000
6 THE POWER OF LOVE JENNIFER RUSH 1985 1,450,000
7 WE FOUND LOVE RIHANNA FEATURING CALVIN HARRIS 2011 1,410,000
8 WANNABE SPICE GIRLS 1996 1,380,000
9 THINK TWICE CELINE DION 1994 1,370,000
10 NEVER EVER ALL SAINTS 1997
11 CALL ME MAYBE CARLY RAE JEPSEN 2012 1,350,000
12 HALLELUJAH ALEXANDRA BURKE 2008
13 PRICE TAG JESSIE J FEATURING B.O.B 2011
14 CAN'T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD KYLIE MINOGUE 2001
15 TORN NATALIE IMBRUGLIA 1997
16 SATURDAY NIGHT WHIGFIELD 1994
17 POKER FACE LADY GAGA 2009
18 ONLY GIRL (IN THE WORLD) RIHANNA 2010 1,160,000
19 ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU MARIAH CAREY 1994
20 2 BECOME 1 SPICE GIRLS 1996 1,130,000

©2017 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.