Impressive for MJ in a less revered decade, his best '90s songs for me are some of the more underrated ones like 'Who Is It' and 'Stranger In Moscow'

Oh yes, on paper 'Beautiful Stranger' does looks surprising as Madonna's top '90s seller! The decade houses one of her most iconic songs in 'Vogue' and the entire Ray of Light era, so it's funny that this Austin Powers soundtrack song usurped everything else. I do like it though!

Ooooh it really is Queen Celine then!

NO 5- CELINE DION (5,552,100)

18 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: MY HEART WILL GO ON (1,312,000)

 

Whilst Madonna did well she couldn’t quite manage to beat Celine’s Total. She is of course the only female artist to have two million selling singles to her credit when the 90s ended. She made the top 10 artists in 1995, 96 and 98 where she even managed to make No 2 in the list of top selling singles act thanks to that Titanic record. She outstripped all other females on the list, not bad for an ex-Eurovision winner....

Madonna has the moral win over Celine as her two million selling monsters heavily pad her chart impact for the decade, but congrats to both for doing 5 million. On sheer consistency, Madonna should be higher, and I love Beautiful Stranger, the number one that shoulda been - if it had edged it, sales may well have been even higher. As thay might have been if Madge had bunged out Keep It Together at the start of the decade ahead of Vogue, as it was in the USA. That was a lost UK single (though our extra one Dear Jessie was even better)...

NO 4- OASIS (5,690,400)

12 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: WONDERWALL (999,000)

 

Their placement at No 4 on this list may surprise some, but it only took 10 top 10 hits to get them here. They sold well over a million singles in 1995, 1996 and 1997 ending those years at No 2, 3, and 7 respectively, their bestselling individual hit is of course “Wonderwall” which returned to it’s No 2 peak a few weeks ago and  is now hovering around the 5.5 million mark with downloads and streams, but the period 94-97 highlights exactly why they became the biggest act in the world....

So the top 3 are all over 6 million!

also @Spiceboy we're reaching the end and you're nowhere to be seen! 😁

Happy they beat Celine, even if they had a virtual million-seller to do it, and they deserve to be top 5 for sure. I'm obv missing three obvious acts for the top 3 slots so I'm going to have to have a quick cheat to work out who they are...!

16 minutes ago, Popchartfreak said:

Happy they beat Celine, even if they had a virtual million-seller to do it, and they deserve to be top 5 for sure. I'm obv missing three obvious acts for the top 3 slots so I'm going to have to have a quick cheat to work out who they are...!

You'll kick yourself!

15 minutes ago, Gezza said:

You'll kick yourself!

I just did, consider myself virtually kicked - I'm not that pliable these days 😄

4 hours ago, Gezza said:

also @Spiceboy we're reaching the end and you're nowhere to be seen! 😁

Hes having a mini break atm not my place to say why hopefully he will be back soon

NO 3- BOYZONE (6,793,500)

16 UK TOP 40 HITS

BEST SELLER: NO MATTER WHAT (1,074,000)

 

Yes I bet nobody suspected when we started doing this that Boyzone would end up in the top 3! They never sold much less than a million in any year 95-99 resulting in the placements of 7-8-12-3-5 in the year end top selling artists. By 1998 they had outstripped Take That as the best selling Boyband of the decade and they managed to time their break up nicely with the end of the decade before that reunion in 2008. Ok they may not be to everyone’s taste but their position on this list should make it clear that the level of support they had in the 90s was unquestionable.....

We'll wrap up tomorrow then with the top 2 which are both over 7 million!!

On 05/08/2026 at 11:32, Gezza said:

also @Spiceboy we're reaching the end and you're nowhere to be seen! 😁

Sorry, am back, had a few days mental health break!

I guessed Boyzone would be top 10 but didn't anticipate them outselling Madonna and Michael Jackson! 🤯 I read somewhere that they outsold Take That in the 90's so that was in my head for them having a high placement.

I obviously know who #1 is going to be lol, but I'm guessing #2 is a male diva who had a rather significant song in that decade! 🤩

46 minutes ago, Spiceboy said:

Sorry, am back, had a few days mental health break!

I guessed Boyzone would be top 10 but didn't anticipate them outselling Madonna and Michael Jackson! 🤯 I read somewhere that they outsold Take That in the 90's so that was in my head for them having a high placement.

I obviously know who #1 is going to be lol, but I'm guessing #2 is a male diva who had a rather significant song in that decade! 🤩

Glad to see you back.

What I can say is that there isn't much in it either way....

Team Elton as I cant remember who the other act is im too young 🤐

I’m hoping it’s the group who win this one. I do like the other act left but clearly the sales figures don’t really reflect the popularity of the act in the 90s

I just realised who the other act is fgs I blame the sun 🤣

Once again, the royal family have a lot to answer for

Boyzone are a surprise to be that high but I'd forgotten about No Matter What being a million seller. That said, I never really think of their hits as being big sellers and would have thought Take That outdid them! Persistence pays off I suppose!