The Official Top 40 Biggest Selling Singles Of All Time By Female Artists revealed!

08/03/2014

By Daniel Lane and Justin Myers

 

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To celebrate International Women’s Day, we reveal the UK’s Official Top 40 biggest singles by female artists of all time. Which lady do you reckon will claim the crown?

 

Today (Saturday March 8) marks International Women’s Day – the annual celebration of the economic, political, and social achievements of women right across the globe; it’s an all-round outpouring of love and appreciation for all the ladies in our lives and beyond.

 

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 40 biggest selling singles of all time by female artists!

 

Far out in front of everybody – and no doubt guiding the way for her fellow female artists with some kind of huge, illuminated headgear – it’s Cher. Her Number 1 smash Believe has sold almost 1.79 million copies in the UK, and spent a staggering seven weeks at the top of the Official Singles Chart in 1998 and was, unsurprisingly the biggest selling single of that year. How fitting that the biggest seller should come from a living legend who next year will celebrate 40 years since her first UK Number 1.

 

Coming up behind Cher is another celebrated voice – the late, great Whitney Houston. Whitney, who sadly 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 1.58 million copies in the UK alone.

 

Oh baby, baby, you knew Britney had to be in here somewhere, right? And here she is up in third. Her debut single …Baby One More Time spent only two weeks at Number 1 in 1999, but it sure shifted plenty of copies while it was there. Its sales tally stands at over 1.53 million – it sold over 460,000 copies in its first week on sale.

 

Rounding off our very famous Top 5 are two ladies with voices as big as their sales. Celine Dion sails into fourth place with the theme from the big movie of 1998, Titanic. My Heart Will Go On has shifted 1.43 million copies (it’s about 3,000 copies behind Britney). Vocal powerhouse Adele is fifth, and the highest placed British female on our list, with Someone Like You.

 

So you know who’s at the top of the list, but who gets multiple entries on our Top 40? The honour of having the most entries on our official chart of biggest selling singles by female artists is a four-way tie: Adele, Rihanna, Lady Gaga and the Spice Girls all have three tracks each. Gaga’s big one is Poker Face (17), Rihanna’s biggest seller is We Found Love (9) and Spice Girls’ Wannabe is their top seller (7).

 

Yesterday Adele and Rihanna became the latest acts to score million-selling singles in the UK with Rolling In The Deep (Number 29 in our chart) and Diamonds (Number 30), respectively.

 

Wondering why Rihanna's million-seller Love The Way You Lie isn’t included in the Top 40? Well, it's because it’s an Eminem track FT Rihanna – our Top 40 celebrates hits which feature females as the lead artist.

 

Three ladies take the honour of second place when it comes to multiple entries: Leona Lewis, Katy Perry and Celine Dion all have two tracks in the Top 40 each. Celine is the only act to get two singles in the Top 10 biggest sellers on our list. All the tracks in the Top 10 have sold over 1.3 million copies – now that’s the power of a woman!

 

The oldest track in the Top 40 is from way back in 1976: Julie Covington’s Number 1 Don't Cry for Me Argentina is 28th on our countdown. The most recent track is Katy Perry’s Roar (40) which topped the Official Singles Chart last September.

 

The Official Top 40 Biggest Selling Singles Of All Time By Female Artists

 

1 BELIEVE CHER 1998 1,790,000

2 I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU WHITNEY HOUSTON 1992 1,580,000

3 ...BABY ONE MORE TIME BRITNEY SPEARS 1999 1,530,000

4 MY HEART WILL GO ON CELINE DION 1998 1,530,000

5 SOMEONE LIKE YOU ADELE 2011 1,520,000

6 THE POWER OF LOVE JENNIFER RUSH 1985 1,420,000

7 WANNABE SPICE GIRLS 1996 1,340,000

8 THINK TWICE CELINE DION 1994 1,330,000

9 WE FOUND LOVE RIHANNA FEATURING CALVIN HARRIS 2011 1,330,000

10 NEVER EVER ALL SAINTS 1997 1,320,000

11 CALL ME MAYBE CARLY RAE JEPSEN 2012 1,270,000

12 HALLELUJAH ALEXANDRA BURKE 2008 1,270,000

13 PRICE TAG JESSIE J FEATURING B.O.B 2011 1,180,000

14 CAN'T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD KYLIE MINOGUE 2001 1,170,000

15 SATURDAY NIGHT WHIGFIELD 1994 1,160,000

16 TORN NATALIE IMBRUGLIA 1997 1,140,000

17 POKER FACE LADY GAGA 2009 1,140,000

18 2 BECOME 1 SPICE GIRLS 1996 1,120,000

19 ONLY GIRL (IN THE WORLD) RIHANNA 2010 1,120,000

20 I FEEL LOVE DONNA SUMMER 1977 1,090,000 (other figures suggest 1,160,000)

21 BLEEDING LOVE LEONA LEWIS 2007 1,080,000

22 FAME IRENE CARA 1982 1,060,000

23 I WILL SURVIVE GLORIA GAYNOR 1979 1,040,000

24 ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU MARIAH CAREY 1994 1,020,000

25 FIGHT FOR THIS LOVE CHERYL COLE 2009 1,020,000

26 BAD ROMANCE LADY GAGA 2009 1,010,000

27 WHOLE AGAIN ATOMIC KITTEN 2001 1,010,000

28 DON'T CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA JULIE COVINGTON 1976 1,010,000

29 ROLLING IN THE DEEP ADELE 2011 1,000,000

30 DIAMONDS RIHANNA 2012 1,000,000

31 FIREWORK KATY PERRY 2010 990,000

32 STARSHIPS NICKI MINAJ 2012

33 SAY YOU'LL BE THERE SPICE GIRLS 1996 950,000

34 JUST DANCE LADY GAGA 2010 940,000

35 JAR OF HEARTS CHRISTINA PERRI 2011 930,000

36 I KNOW HIM SO WELL ELAINE PAIGE AND BARBARA DICKSON 1984

37 A MOMENT LIKE THIS LEONA LEWIS 2006

38 MAKE YOU FEEL MY LOVE ADELE 2008

39 C'EST LA VIE B'WITCHED 1998

40 ROAR KATY PERRY 2013 910,000

 

© 2014 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

Great to see Britney in the Top 3 for something! :D

In short:

Cher - Believe [1.79m]

Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You [1.58m]

Britney Spears - Baby One More Time [1.53m]

Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On [1.53m - 3k behind Britney]

All Saints - Never Ever [1.3m]

Top 30 all have million selling singles, Firework is practically nearly there, so the next female will be Nicki Minaj

Sickens me that 'Price Tag' is in there -_-

Sickens me that 'Price Tag' is in there -_-

 

But Rihanna's 'We Found Love' *also* has a featured male artist...

Good to see Christina Perri well in the list, and JoH should get a significant push towards 1m, thanks to her new single & album... :)

 

I estimate it must be on around 940k now.

Edited March 8, 201411 yr by Vidcapper

I've added most sales for the Top 40 (thanks to Andy on Haven) although there's a few songs that have sold just under 1m that I don't have any sales for.

Tony will be happy that "Starships" is approaching a million - I still had it on 926K oops!

But Rihanna's 'We Found Love' *also* has a featured male artist...

I don't think that's the reason why he doesn't want Price Tag in the chart. It's more likely that he just doesn't like the song and the fact that it's sold so much

I don't think that's the reason why he doesn't want Price Tag in the chart. It's more likely that he just doesn't like the song and the fact that it's sold so much

 

That's the one :lol: it just doesn't compare to virtually all the songs in that list imo

Tony will be happy that "Starships" is approaching a million - I still had it on 926K oops!

Yeah I noticed that - just shows the power of trickle sales outside the Top 200!

Price Tag has outsold Can't Get You Out Of My Head (and to a lesser extent very other lower song in this chart). What is wrong with this country?

Tony will be happy that "Starships" is approaching a million - I still had it on 926K oops!

 

 

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Cant Get You Outta My Head's trickle sale seem to be a lot slower than all the other songs that are more than 10 years old.

Cant Get You Outta My Head's trickle sale seem to be a lot slower than all the other songs that are more than 10 years old.

 

I've noticed that too, but I have no idea why?

Perhaps it just sounds a little bit more dated than some of the others

Do we have some sort of marker in the sand from a few years ago to judge how all the older songs are doing. I can't see why shite like Saturday Night is selling atall :(

Edited March 8, 201411 yr by AnthonyT

Isn't quite something that only 20 years ago, we only had 2 million sellers by female acts and now we have 30?

I've added most sales for the Top 40 (thanks to Andy on Haven) although there's a few songs that have sold just under 1m that I don't have any sales for.

 

Nicky Minaj was on ~951k as of 2 months ago, so will now be on 955-960k

 

Your estimate for Jar Of Hearts is at least 10k, possibly 15k too low - see another post.

Edited March 8, 201411 yr by Vidcapper