Commercial Reception
White Ladder was originally released on Gray's own label IHT Records in November 1998. However, it was only after its re-release in 2000 on ATO Records and the hit single "Babylon" that it sold 100,000 copies in Ireland alone, making it number one for six weeks, and it remains the biggest-selling album in Ireland. The album was #1 on the UK Albums Chart, two years and five months after its original release, spending a total of 151 weeks on the chart. Aside from "Please Forgive Me," which charted at #72 on the UK Singles Chart, all other single releases charted within the Top 20: the re-released "Please Forgive Me" charted at #18, and "Say Hello Wave Goodbye" and "Sail Away" peaked at #26.
In the United States, the album peaked at #35 on the Billboard 200, spending a whole year on the chart. The album earned Gray a nomination in the United States at the 44th Grammy Awards for Best New Artist.
Reflecting on White Ladder's success in 2010, Gray stated: "I still pinch myself when I think about it. That record will be there for ever. It just connected in such a big way with people. It was the period that came after that was difficult. I'm sort of seen as a pop artist. I'm dismissed as slight, I'd say, because of White Ladder."
White Ladder was the fifth best selling UK album of the 2000s. It sold has 2,940,575 units in the UK by July 24, 2011.
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