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The Official Top 10 biggest selling female singles artists of all time revealed!
27/10/2012
By Dan Lane
It’s Rihanna VS Madonna as we reveal The Official Top 10 Biggest Selling Female Singles Artists Of All Time to celebrate 60 years of the Official Singles Chart!
There’s less than a month to go before we’ll be donning our party hats and getting set to blow out the candles (all 60 of them) as we celebrate 60 glittering years of the Official Singles Chart. To whet your appetite for this poptastic occasion, the Official Charts Company today reveal The Official Top 10 Biggest Selling Female Singles Artists Of All Time!
Madonna tops the chart with a combined UK singles sales total of 17.8 million. The Queen Of Pop made her British chart debut in January, 1984 with Holiday, which peaked at Number 6. However it wasn’t until a year later that she scored her first Official Singles Chart Number 1 with Into the Groove, which incidentally, is her biggest ever selling track. To date, as a lead artist, Madonna has enjoyed 59 Top 10 hits (including 13 Number 1s).
However, her Madge-sty might soon have a contender for her crown. With a combined singles sales tally as a lead artist of 11.4 million, Rihanna is at Number 2 in our chart. However, given that the 24-year-old Bajan superstar has sold 3 million singles in the last twelve months alone, if Riri continues selling singles at this rate, she could realistically overtake Madonna in the next two-and-a-half years. And she would still only be 27! Bonkers!
Rihanna is of course known for her prolific collaborations, and while the above figures focus solely on her sales as a lead artist, if you were to add in her collaborations, that would bring her total to a staggering 15.1 million!
Kylie Minogue, who is celebrating her 25th year in music this year, is at Number 3 in the chart with a combined singles sales total of 10.2 million copies. To date, Kylie has scored 35 Top 10 hits (including seven Number 1s). Her biggest selling track is 2001's Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.
Whitney Houston, who tragically passed away in February of this year, is at Number 4 with a sales total of 8.5 million singles, while Lady Gaga has overtaken Britney Spears in the last four months to take fifth place with 7.329 million UK singles sales.
The Official Top 10 Biggest Selling Female Singles Artists Of All Time is as follows. Did your favourite popstar make it in? Lets us know on Twitter and Facebook.
| ARTIST | COMBINED SALES TOTAL | BIGGEST SELLING SINGLE | |
| 01 | MADONNA | 17.8m | INTO THE GROOVE |
| 02 | RIHANNA | 11.4m | WE FOUND LOVE FT CALVIN HARRIS |
| 03 | KYLIE MINOGUE | 10.2m | CAN'T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD |
| 04 | WHITNEY HOUSTON | 8.5m | I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU |
| 05 | LADY GAGA | 7.329m | POKER FACE |
| 06 | BRITNEY SPEARS | 7.324m | BABY ONE MORE TIME |
| 07 | BEYONCE | 6.9m | IF I WERE A BOY |
| 08 | CELINE DION | 6.7m | MY HEART WILL GO ON |
| 09 | MARIAH CAREY | 6.62m | ALL I WANT FOR XMAS IS YOU |
| 10 | OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN | 6.61m | YOU'RE THE ONE THAT I WANT |
© 2012 The Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.
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