Whitney (album) - Commercial Performance

Commercial Performance

With the highly anticipated release of her second album Whitney, Houston became the first female artist to debut at number one in the history of Billboard 200 chart (formerly the "Top Pop Albums" chart). It made her the fourth artist to achieve that feat overall, behind Elton John with Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy and Rock of the Westies, Stevie Wonder with Songs in the Key of Life and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band with Live/1975–85. On June 27, 1987 the album topped the chart and remained there for eleven consecutive weeks, the longest run among the releases that reached peak position of the year. It also debuted at number fourteen on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart (formerly the "Top Black Albums" chart) and peaked at the number two, staying on the chart for a total of seventy-five weeks. The album was Houston's fastest-selling album in the United States at that time, with four million copies shipped within the first three months of its release. It was certified 9× Platinum for shipping 9 million copies in the United States alone by the Recording Industry Association of America on November 29, 1995. The album has sold over 9,253,000 copies in the US to date since May 14, 2012. The album re-entered the Billboard 200 on week February 12, 2012 the following day after Houston's death at number 87 the album remained in the chart for 11 more weeks making 86 weeks on the Billboard 200 to date. The album has sold nearly 289,000 copies more since it's re entry in 2012. Whitney was a smash hit worldwide. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart on June 13, 1987 and remained there for six weeks. There·through, Whitney became the first album to debut at number one in the U.S. and in the UK both. It was 1987's third best-selling album in the UK, behind Michael Jackson's Bad and U2's The Joshua Tree, and was ranked number six on list of "The Best-Selling Albums of the 1980s in UK". With 1.2 million copies sold there, it would become the biggest selling album by a female artist in the UK, a record that has since been broken. With her debut also selling over a million copies, this would make Houston the first female artist to have two albums sell over a million copies in the UK. With current sales of over 2.2 million, the album was the first album by an African-American woman to sell over 2 million in the UK. In Canada, the album topped the albums chart for eleven weeks, being the third best-selling album in 1987, behind U2's The Joshua Tree and Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet. In addition, it peaked at number one in Germany for eleven weeks, Italy for five weeks, Norway for eleven weeks, Netherlands for six weeks, Switzerland for eleven weeks, Austria for two weeks, Sweden for four weeks, Australia for three weeks, New Zealand for two weeks, Spain, Finland, Taiwan, and so on. As a result of massive popularity across Europe, the album topped the European Hot 100 Albums chart for eight weeks in 1987. In Japan, with sales of 384,000 copies combined of LP, CD and Compact Cassette, the album became the third best-selling album of 1987, behind Top Gun Soundtrack Album and Michael Jackson's Bad. In 1988, Whitney was certified 6× Platinumby the British Phonographic Industry(BPI) and 7× Platinum for shipments of 700,000 copies of the album by the Canadian Recording Industry Association(CRIA), respectively. It was also certified Platinum in Germany, Netherlands and Finland, respectively, 2× Platinum in Switzerland, Austria and Sweden, respectively. In November 2006, Whitney was ranked number forty-seven for sales of 2.2 million, making it her biggest-selling album in the UK, on list of "100 Best Selling Albums of All Time in the UK" announced by The Official UK Charts Company. The album has sold over 25 million copies World Wide.

Note:

• A^ It should be certified 7× Platinum. According to The Official UK Charts Company, Whitney sold 2,237,603 copies in United Kingdom, until 2006.