I was looking through the biggest selling albums and singles of all time in the UK and I find it interesting that there are not many artists in there that are both non-white and have come out of the UK. Acts like Bruno Mars, Michael Jackson and The Weeknd have had a lot of success but obviously they're not from here.

 

I'm not bringing this up to be divisive or anything, I just thought it was interesting. If we look at singles (for soloists):

 

2,400,000 - Joel Corry feat. MNEK - Head & Heart (#1, 2020) [bPI: November 2022]

1,800,000 - Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love (#1, 2007) [bPI: March 2021]

1,800,000 - Alexandra Burke - Hallelujah (#1, 2008) [bPI: December 2022]

1,800,000 - Rudimental feat. Ella Eyre - Waiting All Night (#1, 2013) [bPI: September 2022]

1,500,000 - ZAYN - PILLOWTALK (#1, 2016) [OCC: November 2022]

1,316,000 - Craig David - 7 Days (#1, 2000) [MTV: January 2022]

1,200,000 - Stormzy - Shut Up (#8, 2015) [bPI: November 2020]

1,200,000 - Mark Morrison - Return of the Mack (#1, 1996) [bPI: September 2019]

1,200,000 - Ramz - Barking (#2, 2017) [bPI: January 2021]

1,200,000 - Labrinth feat. Emeli Sande - Beneath Your Beautiful (#1, 2012) [bPI: January 2018]

 

And albums:

 

3,210,000 - Leona Lewis - Spirit (#1, 2006) [Est: October 2022]

2,510,000 - Emeli Sande - Our Version Of Events (#1, 2012) [Est: October 2022]

1,976,000 - Craig David - Born to Do It (#1, 2000) [13/10/22]

821,189 - Alexandra Burke - Overcome (#1, 2009) [OCC: November 2015]

429,833 - Stormzy - Gang Signs & Prayer (#1, 2017) [OCC: January 2020]

300,000 - Labrinth - Electronic Earth (#2, 2012) [bPI: April 2021]

100,000 - ZAYN - Mind of Mine (#1, 2016) [bPI: November 2018]

100,000 - Ella Eyre - Feline (#4, 2015) [bPI: October 2019]

 

There's undoubtedly more but just a few that came to mind.

Leona Lewis surely has 2 more albums that would have bigger sales than 100,000? Echo and Christmas, With Love?

Leona Lewis surely has 2 more albums that would have bigger sales than 100,000? Echo and Christmas, With Love?

Yes, but with that list I was going for their biggest entries.

This is a strange thread but Gabrielle, Sade, Eternal , M People , LightHouse family come to mind and have had huge success and there must be hundreds more.

 

Lemar you forgot about.

If you count Naughty boy as an artist I’m sure he had some big ones maybe Dizzee Rascal too

Hot Chocolate going further back too.

Historically it was more difficult for black people to succeed in virtually every profession in the UK, obviously it wasn't right but it is sadly true - and, whilst not as pronounced, demographic statistics of the UK show it is still true today. The music industry is no different.

 

I'm not at all surprised that there would be less successful songs or artists that represent that demographic when you look across the whole period of the charts.

Billy Ocean too of course.

I assumed Mark Morrison was American until his name was mentioned there in the opening post.

Edited June 26, 2024Jun 26 by TheSnake

I suppose 83% the UK population is white, compared to 59% of the US.

Billy Ocean too of course.

If you're going to allow Trinidad born Billy Ocean you can also add Guyana born Eddy Grant as they both moved here about the same age.

Also Shirley Bassey, Winifred Atwell, Goldie, Tricky, Ms Dynamite, Tinie Tempah, Roachford, Joan Armatrading, Michael Kiwanuke

 

There's also people like Talvin Singh, M.I.A., Vanessa Mae and Beabadoobee depending on how you define non-white

Edited June 26, 2024Jun 26 by Severin

If only 17% of the UK population is made up of people of colour using the statistic quoted above and musicians of colour make up a similar percentage of all UK popular music artists, can you really say that demographic is under-represented? How is it possible to quantify without going through every artist thst ever had a top 40 single or album? Certainly, there will be under or over represented in some musical genres based on cultural associations, affinities etc ...eg country, heavy metal, folk vs RnB, rap or urban but even that is changing in recent years as musical genres became less typically racial exclusive.

Also Shirley Bassey, Winifred Atwell, Goldie, Tricky, Ms Dynamite, Tinie Tempah, Roachford, Joan Armatrading, Michael Kiwanuke

 

There's also people like Talvin Singh, M.I.A., Vanessa Mae and Beabadoobee depending on how you define non-white

 

You could also add Freddie Mercury as he was of Indian/Persian descent (who was also born in Zanzibar, which is now Tanzania).

 

 

Sinitta

Five Star

Misteeq

Tanita Tikiram

Mel B

Javine

Simon Webbe

Naughty Boy

 

It will be a long list!

 

 

 

 

Imagination, Jaki Graham, Linx from the 80s too.