Adele’s 21 is rolling in the deep, that is to say, the hit record is now ten years deep in the Billboard 200 charts. While the 33-year-old is probably still celebrating her fourth consecutive week at number one with her latest album, 30, she now has another reason to celebrate. The songstress’ legendary 2011 sophomore release, 21, has finally reached 520 weeks on the Billboard 200, which makes 10 years.
With 21 Adele Managed To Outshine Her Peers, And Just About Everyone Else.
While 21 isn’t the first record to hit the elusive mark, Adele has managed to accomplish something that no other female act has. She has now had an album remain on the list of the most-consumed EPs and full-lengths in the U.S. for an entire decade.
The album was a bonafide hit. Really. It was the best-selling album of 2011. People loved 21 so much that it achieved the rare feat of becoming the best-selling two years in a row. The record sold over 4 million copies two years in a row, which is unheard of in recent decades. Having an album be the bestseller for two years in a row hasn’t been accomplished since Michael Jacksons Thriller outsold every other record in 1983 and 1984.
With sales of over 31 million copies worldwide, 21 is easily the best-selling album of the 21st century, and one of the best-selling albums of all time.
The smash-hit helped Adele become the first female to have three singles simultaneously on the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 as a solo artist.
Adele Joins An Elite Club Among The Ranks Of Nirvana, Pink Floyd, And Metallica.
Adele is just the tenth musician to see one of their releases hit the 10 years mark on the Billboard 200, and 21 is just the tenth record to do so. The list is even shorter if you remove the greatest hits compilations. According to Fortune, Adele’s autobiographical record joins the ranks of Metallica’s self-titled, Nirvana’s Nevermind, Bruno Mars’ Doo-Wops & Hooligans, and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.
If you include compilation records you can add a few more to that list: Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Legend, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits, and Eminem’s Curtain Call: The Hits.
Adele followed up the record with 25, which sold more copies in the US in its debut week than the previous number-one albums had sold in the previous 22 weeks combined. It is the second best-selling record of the decade after 21, but we’ll have to wait until 2025 to see if Adele can be the only artist to manage the feat twice.