First album to sell three million copies in a calendar year (UK)

No other album in UK chart history can match the 3,772,346 copies that 21, the second album from UK singer-songwriter Adele (b. Adele Adkins), sold in 2011. With more than six months of the year to spare, 21 sailed past the 2,367,758 copies sold by previous record holder James Blunt’s Back to Bedlam in 2005, and later replaced Madonna’s The Immaculate Collection (3,550,000 copies sold) as the biggest-selling album by a solo female in the UK. Incredibly, by adding in sales for her debut album 19, which shifted an additional 1,207,600 copies in 2011, Adele sold approximately 2.2 million more albums in 2011 than anyone else in a calendar year in UK chart history. It was Michael Jackson who set the previous mark in 2009, generating multiple album sales of 2,797,666 in the year he passed away. At the age of 23, Adele (b. 5 May 1988) is also the youngest solo female to sell three million copies of an album in the UK. 21 was released on 31 January 2011 and beat James Blunt’s record on 4 June 2011. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certified 21 14 times platinum for shipments of 4.2 million units on 16 December 2011. The previous calendar year record for an album by a solo female was the 2,201,842 copies sold by Shania Twain’s Come on Over in 1999. The six solo females who have sold three million copies of an album in the UK are: Adele (3,772,346 for 21); Madonna (3,555,000 for The Immaculate Collection); Amy Winehouse (3,395,000 for Back to Black); Shania Twain (3,358,941 for Come on Over); Dido (3,048,208 for No Angel); Leona Lewis (3,034,653 for Spirit). Figures correct to 7 January 2012.