According to latest figures by the IFPI, Adele’s 30 was the best-selling album of 2021, yet again cementing her star status.
According to latest figures by the IFPI, Adele’s 30 was the best-selling album of 2021, yet again cementing the singer’s star status. More than that, however, Adele also dominated album categories across the board on the IFPI charts.
The singer doesn’t just have the best-selling album on the All Format Chart, but also came in at No. 1 on both the Global Album Sales Chart and the newly-minted Global Vinyl Album Chart.
In a press release, Frances Moore, Chief Executive of the IFPI, said: “It has been wonderful to have Adele back and releasing music over the second half of last year. Her dominance of all three IFPI Album Charts speaks to her unique song-writing talent, her iconic voice and unrelenting global popularity.”
This year, Adele takes the No. 1 spot on the All Format Chart from another global giant – K-pop act BTS, who topped the chart last year, also its debut. The K-pop group stayed strong on the IFPI rankings this year as well, being named the Global Recording Artist of the Year. With this, they became the first K-pop act in history to be named the IFPI’s Global Recording Artist of The Year two years in a row.
Immediately after its release, Adele’s 30 broke multiple records. The album became 2021’s best-selling album within three days of its release, leaving behind Taylor Swift’s Evermore and Red (Taylor’s Version). Such was the hype around the release that the singer caused a global vinyl shortage in the run up to the release of the album, since she wanted all versions of her work to be available on the same day.
In an appearance on Kyle & Jackie O, Ed Sheeran revealed that Adele had booked out factories in advance to ensure a vinyl release of 30. “There’s like three vinyl factories in the world. So you have to do it like really upfront — and Adele had basically booked out all the vinyl factories, so we had to get a slot and get our album in there. It was like me, Coldplay, Adele, Taylor, ABBA, Elton (John), all of us were trying to get our vinyls printed at the same time.”
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Check out ‘Easy On Me’ by Adele:
