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BuzzJack Music Forum _ UK Charts _ OCC: Top 20 Best Selling Singles By Female Artists
Posted by: liamk97 Mar 8 2017, 11:14 AM
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.
Posted by: Scene Mar 8 2017, 11:28 AM
What a list. *.* 
@ Rihanna clocking 1.4m sales of WFL.
Posted by: Mullo Mar 8 2017, 11:37 AM
No Madonna 
Posted by: vidcapper Mar 8 2017, 11:38 AM
Mariah should continue to climb that list steadily.
Posted by: common sense Mar 8 2017, 11:41 AM
Into The Groove is her biggest seller but hasn't even sold a million yet.
Posted by: M4NG0 Mar 8 2017, 11:51 AM
Yeah I've always found it so odd that she hasn't had any million sellers.
Posted by: liamk97 Mar 8 2017, 11:54 AM
There was a list similar to this published a couple of years ago and 'Into the Groove' would have appeared in the Top 50. Sales for it vary slightly but it's just about at the 900k mark now.
Posted by: 360Jupiter Mar 8 2017, 12:25 PM
I can't believe this list has Alexandra Burke of all people. I'm also surprised that Burke has outsold Leona Lewis - of the two I would've expected to see Leona there.
Are they all #1 hits apart from All I Want for Christmas?
Posted by: UltraGreenLight Mar 8 2017, 12:27 PM
Torn wasn't a #1!
Posted by: Scene Mar 8 2017, 12:55 PM
Are they all #1 hits apart from All I Want for Christmas?
Bleeding Love can't be that far off the list. I think it's total sales are around 1.1m now. Hallelujah was released off the back of a hugely popular series with an underdog winner (plus Woolworths was going into administration which helped shift a lot of copies
)Off topic but I miss Woolworths.
Posted by: Tinasha Mar 8 2017, 01:00 PM
Also the year Alexandra won was a year where digital sales really started to reach some impressive heights.
Posted by: Gezza Mar 8 2017, 01:32 PM
Also I see we've reverted back to the higher figures for 94-96 period.
Posted by: cqmerqn Mar 8 2017, 02:13 PM
Sales only?
Posted by: vibe Mar 8 2017, 05:52 PM
Price Tag the only average song on there really.
Whigfield was a craze lol
Posted by: Regina Mar 8 2017, 06:54 PM
Slayine Dion appearing twice in the top 10 *.*
Posted by: Envoirment Mar 8 2017, 07:42 PM
How many copies is "Someone Like You" selling a year? I'm guessing it'll eventually overtake "Believe" someday.
Posted by: liamk97 Mar 8 2017, 10:14 PM
In the comments, OCC posted this:
Posted by: GTH Mar 9 2017, 08:32 PM
Looks like Mariah is set to keep making good progress up this list year on year
Posted by: liamk97 Mar 9 2017, 09:31 PM
01 Cher 'Believe' 1,800,000
02 Whitney Houston 'I Will Always Love You' 1,610,000
03 Adele 'Someone Like You' 1,560,000
04 Celine Dion 'My Heart Will Go On' 1,550,000
05 Britney Spears 'Baby One More Time' 1,540,000
06 Jennifer Rush 'The Power of Love' 1,430,000
07 Rihanna 'We Found Love' 1,370,000
08 Spice Girls 'Wannabe' 1,360,000
09 Celine Dion 'Think Twice' 1,350,000
10 All Saints 'Never Ever' 1,350,000
11 Carly Rae Jepsen 'Call Me Maybe' 1,320,000
12 Alexandra Burke 'Hallelujah' 1,280,000
13 Jessie J 'Price Tag' 1,210,000
14 Kylie Minogue 'Can't Get You Out of My Head' 1,180,000
15 Whigfield 'Saturday Night' 1,180,000
16 Natalie Imbruglia 'Torn' 1,170,000
17 Lady Gaga 'Poker Face' 1,160,000
18 Rihanna 'Only Girl (In the World)' 1,140,000
19 Spice Girls '2 Become 1' 1,130,000
20 Donna Summer 'I Feel Love' 1,100,000
21 Leona Lewis 'Bleeding Love' 1,090,000
22 Mariah Carey 'All I Want for Christmas is You' 1,090,000
23 Irene Cara 'Fame' 1,070,000
24 Gloria Gaynor 'I Will Survive' 1,060,000
25 Rihanna 'Diamonds' 1,060,000
26 Katy Perry 'Firework' 1,040,000
27 Katy Perry 'Roar' 1,030,000
28 Cheryl Cole 'Fight for This Love' 1,030,000
29 Adele 'Rolling in the Deep' 1,030,000
30 Lady Gaga 'Bad Romance' 1,020,000
31 Atomic Kitten 'Whole Again' 1,010,000
32 Julie Covington 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina' 1,000,000
33 Christina Perri 'Jar of Hearts' 980,000
34 Nicki Minaj 'Starships' 980,000
35 Spice Girls 'Say You'll Be There' 960,000
36 Lady Gaga 'Just Dance' 950,000
37 Adele 'Make You Feel My Love' 940,000
38 Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson 'I Know Him So Well' 930,000
39 Leona Lewis 'A Moment Like This' 910,000
40 B*Witched 'C'est La Vie' 910,000
Posted by: paulc Mar 12 2017, 04:28 AM
Interesting that there's only one pre1990s track in the top 20...
Posted by: 360Jupiter Mar 12 2017, 02:11 PM
Plus streams, would Adele be topping the list? or would Believe and Whitney still top her?
Posted by: Peenus Fly Trap Mar 12 2017, 05:03 PM
So Madonna was never Queen of Pop!
Also wtf surely Never Ever sold more than Wannabe?!
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