Most No.1s on the UK’s Official Classical Artist Albums Chart (female)

Katherine Jenkins (UK) topped the UK’s Official Classical Artist Albums Chart for a 13th time when Guiding Light reached No.1 on 30 May 2019. The mezzo-soprano’s first chart-topper was her debut album Première, on 17 April 2004. It was followed to No.1 by Second Nature (2004), Living a Dream (2005), Serenade (2006), Sacred Arias (2008), Serenade – Deluxe Edition (2009), The Ultimate Collection (2009), One Fine Day (2011), Best of British (2012), This Is Christmas (2013), Home Sweet Home (2014) and Celebration (2016).

Jenkins’ 13 No.1 albums have spent a total of 92 weeks at the top: 1. Premiere (11 non-consecutive weeks from 17 April 2004); 2. Second Nature (33 non-consecutive weeks from 30 October 2004); 3. Living a Dream (22 non-consecutive weeks from 12 November 2005); 4. Serenade (8 non-consecutive weeks from 18 November 2006); 5. Sacred Arias (2 consecutive weeks from 1 November 2008); 6. Serenade – Deluxe Edition (2 consecutive weeks from 30 May 2009); 7. The Ultimate Collection (3 consecutive weeks from 14 November 2009); 8. One Fine Day (5 consecutive weeks from 9 October 2011); 9. Best of British (1 week - 22 July 2012); 10. This Is Christmas (2 consecutive weeks from 10 November 2013); 11. Home Sweet Home (1 week – 23 November 2014); 12. Celebration (1 week – 29 April 2016); 13. Guiding Light (1 week – 30 May 2019).

Guiding Light was released in November 2018, but its climb to No.1 coincided with the end of her UK tour, entitled ‘An Evening with Katherine Jenkins’, which ran from 26 April to 21 May 2019. The album includes songs such as “Jealous of the Angels”, “Never Enough” (from The Greatest Showman), “Blinded by Your Grace” (made famous by Stormzy) and “Xander’s Song”, dedicated to her second child.

André Rieu, with 16 No.1 albums as of 6 February 2020, is the only act with more chart-toppers than Jenkins.

The Official Classical Artist Albums Chart was first published for the week ending 16 October 1999.

On New Year’s Day 2020, Classic FM counted down their ‘Chart of the Century’ and named Katherine Jenkins as the biggest-selling classical albums artist of the last 20 years, with more than 2.6 million albums sold in the UK. In a chart topped by Russell Watson’s The Voice, Jenkins had three albums in the Top 10: Living a Dream (No.4), Second Nature (No.5) and Serenade (No.9), and seven entries in the full Top 100.