British singer Adele’s album ’21’ turns 15 with record-breaking sales.
Dublin, Jan 24 (EFE)
British singer Adele’s album ’21’ turns 15 this Saturday, giving the singer ample reason to celebrate, as it has become the best-selling album by a female artist of all time with over 56 million copies sold.
The 37-year-old Londoner’s work officially surpassed this week a record held by Whitney Houston since 1992 with ‘The Bodyguard,’ the soundtrack to the film of the same name.
With 56,375,000 copies sold, compared to Houston’s 56,372,000, ’21’ achieved a historic milestone on Wednesday for a work created fifteen years ago in a rapidly changing market.
The album catapulted Adele to international stardom at a time when digital downloads and streaming were beginning to dominate, which makes the sales figures for the physical format even more significant compared to an iconic rival from the last century.
The analysis by the website ChartMasters, which compiles data on albums, singles, streams, and downloads, confirms the cult status achieved by the English singer-songwriter’s second album, following her 2008 debut, ’19’.
Conceived after a painful breakup, ’21’ is the vehicle through which Adele expressed deeply personal emotions, with heart-wrenching lyrics in songs that combined classic soul with contemporary pop.
Tracks like ‘Turning Tables’, ‘Rumour Has It’, and especially ‘Someone Like You’ are true anthems that have united different generations and, 15 years later, defy the passage of time, remaining highly relevant on radio, television, streaming platforms, and, according to CSPC, even in record stores.
But the success of ’21’ isn’t just measured by its surpassing ‘The Bodyguard,’ a cultural phenomenon of the 90s thanks to the film and Houston’s powerful voice on hits like ‘I Will Always Love You,’ ‘I Have Nothing,’ ‘I’m Every Woman,’ and ‘Run To You.’
It also ranks ahead of albums by some of the most influential artists in music history.
According to the aforementioned list, Adele has sold more copies of ’21’ than Shania Twain with ‘Come On Over’ (1997) and Celine Dion with ‘Let’s Talk About Love’ (1997), which reached 47,633,000 and 47,501,000 copies, respectively.
And while sales figures sometimes clash with expert opinion, the critical acclaim it received at the time left no doubt about the quality of the British singer’s second album.
Rolling Stone magazine chose ’21’ as the best album of 2011, in line with other media outlets such as the Associated Press, Entertainment Weekly, TIME magazine, and USA Today.
Furthermore, in February 2012, Adele received seven Grammy Awards.These include ‘Album of the Year’; ‘Best Pop Vocal Album’; ‘Song of the Year’, with ‘Rolling in the Deep’; and ‘Best Pop Solo Performance’, with ‘Someone like You’.
Its importance and influence still endures, as evidenced by the fact that just five years ago ‘Rolling Stone’ included ’21’ at number 137 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
