IFPI names Adele biggest global artist of 2015

The International Federation of Phonographic Industry has hailed Adele as the biggest global artist across all music formats.

The achievement is made greater considering that the British singer returned to action in November, and refused to be on streaming services.

The Hello single went to #1 in 30 countries, including Australia, the UK, the US, Germany, France and Italy. It had over 1.13 billion hits on YouTube.

The 25 album, which came out on November 20, broke records for first-week sales in both the United States and Britain – but not in Australia. Although 25 moved 150,000 (double platinum) in Australia in three days, debut albums by Guy Sebastian and Shannon Noll did better.

25 has now sold 15 million units around the world. Last Sunday, tracking service Nielsen SoundScan reported that 25 had sold eight million copies in the US – only the sixth album to reach that sales mark since 2001.

IFPI’s Global Recording Artist award is ranked on capturing the popularity of artists across digital, CD and vinyl formats, singles and albums, downloads, and on-demand audio streams and music videos in a calendar year.

The IFPI’s Top 10 Global Recording Artists of 2015

1 Adele

2 Ed Sheeran

3 Taylor Swift

4 Justin Bieber

5 One Direction

6 Coldplay

7 Maroon 5

8 Sam Smith

9 Drake

10 The Weeknd

Commenting on the award, IFPI’s London-based Chief Executive Frances Moore said: “I’m delighted to be able to honour Adele as the most popular global recording artist of 2015. Her album 25 has been the runaway global sensation of the year, breaking records across the world and reaching a vast audience of fans.

“All of the artists in our top 10 chart have achieved incredible success – and Adele’s achievement is simply phenomenal.”

Meantime, Adele’s second album 21 has hit the 30 million global mark, 1 million of those in Australia.