Adele’s ‘25’ album hits 10 million mark in US

ADELE’S 25 has topped 10 million sales in the United States, her second album to cross the threshold as the English singer cements her status as the centu top-selling artist.

The US industry body presented Adele a plaque certifying that 25, released in November last year, had gone diamond platinum, or sold 10 million, at a ceremony backstage at New York’s Madison Square Garden where she had just played six sold-out shows, her publicist announced on Tuesday.

The Recording Industry Association of America, in its latest certifications, said it also recognised that Adele’s 2011 album 21 had sold 14 million copies in the United States, the world’s largest music market.

Adele, who has achieved similar historic success in her native Britain, is the only artist to sell albums at such volume since digital music went mainstream in the early 2000s.

A handful of other albums since 2000 have gone diamond platinum but all were about a decade before Adele.

They include rap superstar Eminem’s The Eminem Show, country pop singer Shania Twain’s Up! in 2002, in 2000 teen idol Britney Spears’ Oops! I Did It Again and boy band NSYNC’s No Strings Attached, and the Beatles compilation 1.

Adele has performed some of the most recognisable songs in recent years with tear-jerker ballads such as Someone Like You and Hello, winning an audience that crosses demographic and age lines.

In a rare move, she initially kept 25 off fast-growing streaming services such as Spotify, where the album finally appeared in June, seven months after its release. — AFP