The female solo artists with the most Number 1 albums
As the age-old adage (Beyoncé lyric) goes; who run the world? Girls.
Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the world of pop music; and some of the most iconic female pop stars of all time have passed through the Official Albums Chart, notching up in some cases record-breaking chart-toppers.
Below, we reveal the female solo artists who have claimed the most Number 1 albums in Official Charts history.
Madonna is Officially the female solo-artist with the most Number 1 albums in UK chart history, with a total of 12 chart-toppers to her name: Like A Virgin, True Blue, Like A Prayer, The Immaculate Collection, Evita - OST, Ray of Light, Music, American Life, Confessions on a Dancefloor, Hard Candy, Celebration and MDNA.
Madonna became the first woman to achieve a double figure Number 1 album chart haul, joining an elite club that only includes The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Robbie Williams, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen U2 and, as of last month, Taylor Swift. Look back at Madonna's full UK chart history, including 63 UK Top 10 singles.
But coming up not far behind is none other than Taylor Swift - who in November 2023 extended her own all-time Official Chart record, generating the fastest succession of 11 UK Number 1 albums of any female artist with 1989 (Taylor's Version), the latest artist to join the double figures club.
Now only one album away from equalling Madonna's all-time tally, Taylor scored her first UK Number 1 album in October 2012 with Red. The Beatles hold the overall record here, racking up nine chart toppers in 5 years and 7 months between their debut album Please Please Me in May 1963 and The White Album in December 1968. Prior to this achievement, in December 2020 Taylor set a record for scoring six chart toppers in the quickest time for a female artist (eight years) surpassing Madonna (11 years).
Taylor Swift broke several chart records with her tenth album Midnights, and with her ninth consecutive Number 1 album, leapfrogged Kylie Minogue to Officially become the female solo artist with the second-most Number 1 albums.
1989 (Taylor's Version) joins Taylor’s previous ten UK chart-topping albums, all achieved consecutively; Red (2012), 1989 (2014), reputation (2017), Lover (2019), Folklore (2020), Evermore (2020), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (2021), Red (Taylor’s Version) (2021), Midnights (2022) and Speak Now (Taylor's Version).
Taylor also extends her lead as the female solo artist with the highest-collection of Number 1 albums this century.
Kylie Minogue is next in line, with eight Number 1 albums. Her latest chart-topper was in 2023 with Tension. Fun fact: Kylie has landed at least one Number 1 album in the 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s and 20s, and is the only female artist to achieve this.
Barbra Streisand is fourth with seven chart-toppers, should you include 1977's A Star Is Born soundtrack, credited as Original Soundtrack on first release, but credited to Barbra solely on re-release. Barbra's most recent Number 1 is her duets album Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway, which made it all the way to the helm of the Official Albums Chart back in September 2016. See all of Barbra Streisand's hits in her artist hub.
Female artists with most Number 1s on the Official Albums Chart
| ARTIST | NUMBER 1 ALBUMS |
| MADONNA | 12 |
| TAYLOR SWIFT | 11 |
| KYLIE MINOGUE | 9 |
| BARBRA STREISAND | 7* |
| LANA DEL REY | 6 |
| CELINE DION | 5 |
| LADY GAGA | 5** |
| RIHANNA | 4 |
| ARIANA GRANDE | 4 |
| ADELE | 4 |
| BEYONCE | 4 |
| ELLIE GOULDING | 4 |
| PINK | 4 |
| DIANA ROSS | 3 |
| KATE BUSH | 3 |
| EVA CASSIDY | 3 |
| NORAH JONES | 3 |
| AVRIL LAVIGNE | 3 |
| SUSAN BOYLE | 3 |
| AMY WINEHOUSE | 3 |
©2022 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.
*7 including the A Star Is Born soundtrack, first billed as 'Original Soundtrack' and credited solely to Barbra on re-releases.
**5 including A Star Is Born's Motion Picture Cast Recording, a soundtrack featuring songs by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, with spoken interludes from other cast members.
Article Image: Shutterstock
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T
Thomsy26
Taylor Swifts team are basically re releasing old albums and bagging new number 1's. Shes a cheat and the official charts should not count them as new albums. She cant sell albums so cheats her stats.
S
secondalibi
Taylor Swift will overtake Madonna eventually. That'll no doubt upset a few bitter people.
G
Gery
Not with new albums, and she'll never be as groundbreaking as Madonna either. Taylor appeals to basic Becky's and sour faced Karens.
NN
Nu No
If Kylie new albums is coming soon as announce she will most likely tie again with Taylor.
Let's not forget that one of Taylor #01 albums is a re-recordings of a previous #01 albums as well (that in some countries charts count as the same album but not in UK).
Smith Smyth
Yeah kinda not really fair that Taylor Swift keeps remaking her old albums into new versions that generate another number one. Nothing against her musically but it's not really that different to a re-release in my humble opinion.
C
Cloudbuster
The person who wrote this article ignores the fact that both The Beatles and TS released frequently (The Beatles also released 2 albums in one year).
Taylor Swift not only has streaming to fall back on, she also released 10+ different versions of her albums, and some of them were re-recordings. Madonna didn't have any of that and she achieved her number ones without resorting to desperate tactics, It was purely organic. and who's to say TS will continue to get number one's anyway?
J
Julia
We are talking about the Albums that reached the # 1 slot. All else chart position does not matter here.. The Beatles only reached # 1 once with one of their re-issue Album unlike Taylor Swift who did it multiple times and to me that holds no value. End of the day those who follow the charts to their hearts content will know that any album re-issue reaching the # 1 position just dosen't sit right and it's not fair to other artist. This is the OCC fault and also did this with Elvis in the singles chart where his re-issues of singles that made it to # 1 got credited as yet another # 1. Tragic chart.
A
Atrin
I don't know how I feel about re-recordings of the same album making it possible for an album to count twice...
NN
Nu No
Taylor did good with Midnight... but let's not forget that Taylor was already 7 years into her career when she first got to #01 on UK albums charts while Madonna was less than 2 years into her carreer when she achieved to #01 on UK album charts.
Looking at "Midnight" campaigns looks like Taylor needed almost 30 versions of an album and a lot of pre-sales to achieve this new record. Taylor have been releasing albums like crazy in the past years and being at her prime she is collecting a lot of Albums #01... not so much songs as her single charts stats aren't as bright.
Also all Madonna XXI century studio album reached #01 or #02 in UK... Taylor had 3 studio albums to even miss the TOP 3 and one of them even peaked at #86.
Blank
This article is woefully out of date.
NN
Nu No
Will Taylor Swift get an 8th #01 album in UK with another re-recording album version?
She may score #01 albums but she isn't selling that much with each album.
As August 2021 UK album sales (including track equivalents and streamings) for Taylor Swift stand only at 3.4 million.
The difference from Barbra Streisand 10.6 million album sales in UK and Kylie Minogue 10.5 million album sales UK is massive.
Madonna is on a league of her own with 23 million album sales in UK already.
Celine Dion and Whitney Houston (that doesn't have many #01 albums in UK) both sold around 12 million.
Adele is already at 11 million album sales in UK.
Spot the huge difference? This is the new marketing to get #01's and make headlines and "history" using it with new possibilities of delivering music to people on week of release (and choosing carefully weeks with no possible competition to release the albums).
Blank
This should need updating twice before the end of April: New #1s for Lana and Taylor. The latter would have her 4th #1 album in 2 years!
They haven't been around long enough for beating Kylie's 5-decade record, but should beat Madonna's all-time record by the end of the decade with their current momenum. An update to my earlier comment when such prolific releases by these acts weren't happening. Half way to the total in a third of the time...
NN
Nu No
Yes... lots of number ones yet so little sales...
Blank
That's the nature of the 21st century album chart. 4 #1s have dropped straight out of the top 100 this year - just 1 week on chart - at #1!. I think all but 5 of this years 30+ #1s have have failed last a month on chart. Taylor's is one of the 5. The biggest sellers are the old albums (released 2020 and earlier) that have been bouncing around the top 30 all year.
NN
Nu No
Yes, today most albums sell over 50% of total year sales on release week.
Taylor Swift is taking advantage of slow sales weeks to release surprise albums and get number one albums on both US and UK. She is still at her peak now but that won't last forever (she was selling more a few years back). She is already scoring number ones with re-recording her catalog and she got lucky as well these past 2 years so let's see if she remains as lucky in the future.
Taylor total album sales in UK are still under 3.6 million (Madonna best selling album in UK is "The Immaculate Collection" with sales of 3.85 million so far and is bouncing back to TOP 100 any now and then). Madonna sold over 23 million albums in UK.
I'm sure that Madonna catalog and records will be protected by Warner Music now that Madonna is back to her old label. They will do whatever it takes to give Madonna more #01 albums. If Elvis added 2 new #01 albums last decade to pass Madonna again and have 13 number one albums I'm sure Warner witll work it out so that Madonna passes Elvis once again.
All Madonna albums were #02 last decade (10's) and all of them sold more than Taylor Swift new studio albums the week that were at #01 in 2020 (even 2019 "Madame X" that wasn't that promoted by Interscoop as Madonna was going to leave them and own her recordings moving them to Warner now).
Not sure what Warner Music planned for 2022 as they said they had multiple Madonna releases to celebrate her 40th Carreer Aniversary but it's very possible that they may try to give Madonna #01 albums with some old releases that didn't achieved #01 at first releasing special limited editions with bonus tracks or remixes (or even aditional tracks with remixes with other artists like Michael Jackson did with "Thriller 25 Anniversary").
Blank
Well, we're nearly at the end of 2022 and they've released just the one remix album which failed to add to the total. I don't expect any else either. Guess we'll have to wait until Taylor's 10th #1 to find out. Or longer.
NN
Nu No
So you updated Kylie Minogue data on the chart with "Disco" 8th #01 album but didn't yet update the text that talks about "Golden" and "Step Back In Time". Will you?
Blank
The main text of the article needs updating too. It cites 7 #1s and most recent being 2019 for Kylie. It's now 8 and 2020 respectively.
Luisa Sera
Cheers, everyone.. Come in and find out what Girls really want..For those who love ♥ , pretty girls with natural beautiful bodies 💋Very frankly .. (copy the link)➤ catcut.net/UJDO
David
Kylie forever!!!
RC
Ricardo Cortese
Connie Francis. your list is only for people under 30 yrs old..
NN
Nu No
Madonna is over 60 yo and Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross are over 70 yo, Among others Kylie Minogue and Celine Dion are over 50 yo so your argument falls out as the TOP 3 of the list is way over 30 yo.
Connie Francis only had 1 UK #01 album. This list only have artist that had at least 3 UK #01 albums.
RC
Ricardo Cortese
I was referring to the voters not the singers.
Blank
They aren't voters, they're record buyers. It's the aggregate #1 albums over the last 65 years. Anyone who has ever bought an album in that time has contributed to the chart.
Blank
Funny how both Barbra Streisand and Lady Gaga can boost their totals with A Star Is Born OSTs. 2 Different soundtracks from 2 different films of the same name.
NN
Nu No
Yet as both aren't the only artist singing overt 50% of those album songs the albums aren't officially considered their albums.
CP
Courtney Puzzo
does anybody think Disco will be Kylie Minogue's 8th #1 album when released in November
Blank
Should be. If so it would make it her 5th different decade with a #1 album
Count Plutarch
Disco is going to make KM close that gap on Madonna a little...
NN
Nu No
Hopefully will make a little gap between her and all others behind her as some are closing in fast (Kylie got her 6th #01 in 2018 and 7th #01 in 2019 and Taylor Swift just got her 5th this year!)
GPB
And 8th in 2020...
https://media4.giphy.com/media/5GoVLqeAOo6PK/giphy.gif
AT
Alan Taylor
They did not include MARIAH CAREY n WHITNEY HOUSTON
DamionThorn
Does one actually have to explain charts to you?
NN
Nu No
This list only includes artists that had at least 3 #01 albums on UK Charts.
Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey only had 2 #01 albums in UK.
Mariah Carey latest original songs album to peak TOP 10 was in 2008 and except for her Greatest Hits in 2015 all her albums even failed UK TOP 10 this past decade. Her latest album released this week only peaked #44 so far and her previous one peaked #40 in 2018.
https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/25943/mariah-carey/
Mark Wislen
Diana Ross has really only had 1 Solo No.1 Album in the UK. It was 'One Woman - The Ultimate Collection', which first Charted in 1993 and reached No.1, (2 Non-Consecutive Weeks), in January 1994. Her other 3 No.1 Albums cannot possibly be called 'Solo'. She was No.1 with The Supremes 'Hits' Albums, in both 1968 and 1977. She was No.1, with The Supremes and The Temptations, in 1969. Those 3 Albums were not Diana 'Solo', by any meaning of that word...
NN
Nu No
Yes but she was credited as "Diana Ross & The Supremes" so it was not just "The Supremes". Just like some Bruce Springsteen albums are "Bruce Springsteen & The E ST Band" and that's why it counts (unike most OST that are credited to "Various Artists".
Brian Lauri
“HAS TOOK”? Who wrote this: a 5-year-old?
How this person got a job writing is mind-boggling
Sammy Anthony
Thoughts: 2-3 decades later, Madonna will still be at the top, but more artists definitely come after her position.
NN
Nu No
Amazing that besides having 12 #01 albums Madonna also have 6 albums that peaked #02.
All her studio albums (14 in total) were all #01 or #02 in UK except for her first album from 1983 that peaked #06. And even if we add her compilation albums we can say all were TOP 5. So all her studio albums from 1984 to 2019 were #01 or #02.
Among all albums she released she only had 4 live albums that missed TOP 10 (she did have one live album that peaked #07) and 1 box of Complete Studio Albums (12 CDs) that charted sepearately in UK (in some countries it was added to each albums total sales from that week as it's a box with the same albums that peaked Top 10 before)
Blank
It's entirely possible that someone who hasn't had their debut hit yet will overtake her by then.
Not sure anyone currently on the list has the momentum to do it.
GPB
Kylie still has a chance to reach Madonna's achievement as it's only 4 albums away... And in 3 decades even overtake the thrown... Kylie is the queen of greatest hits albums after all... LOL
AS
anthony strong
can't wait for Madame X. The media's hate for Madonna is really bad as they do not want Madonna to widen her gap with other artists but with the quality of her new stuff in mind i think her new album will go to number 1. Lets hope the lack of Radio play along with ageism doesn't prevent it. Madonna is a Living legend and whether you like her or loathe her she deserves respect !
de Sascha
Yes it's so obvious.
Ghosttown, Medellin, Crave, Turn up the radio etc should all have been bona fide Top10 Hits!
As if her current music doesn't exist.
Anything is charting within the UK Top 100 but not Madonna??
L
luca
Madame X is great
Sparky Nolan
Its amazing
NN
Nu No
The Singles charts are now mostly streaming ("Medellin" did peak #87) and Madonna clearly isn't the most streamed artist. But on Top 40 Singles Sales Chart Madonna had 5 different songs charting in UK during 2019 (and some of them stayed there for quite a few weeks).
de Sascha
Nu No I know that it's all about the streams but what puzzles me that she has released a few good singles the last 5 years like the ones I mentioned above. E.g. she even performed Ghosttown live with Taylor Swift(USA) and it didn't pur a dent in the charts?
Maybe it's all too laaaate . . .
NN
Nu No
It's all about promo. Her contract was with a Live Events Company and not a real Record Label and they were only worried about getting her on Tour making lots of money from concerts. They never even bothered to release physical singles on limited editions, picture discs, etc - their goal was have an excuse for a new tour and didn't care on promoting her music. Also Madonna promo was not big at all - yes she did an effort on "Rebel Heart" ("Ghosttown" did got her a TOP 20 on Adult Comtemporary Charts thanks to that). She did "Living For Love" at the Brit Awards and the song did cracked the TOP 20 Single Sales and Official TOP 40. It would have been higher if the record company released a limited edition single in Vynil and CD. Would certainly be TOP 10 on sales and probably even TOP 20 on Official charts (as peaked #26). I hope Madonna is back to Warner Music or goes somewhere she is promoted again. All her albums and singles could have had sellings five times higher with good promo.
This week Kylie Minogue released "Magic" and "Say Something" and they peaked #02 and #04 on sales chart despite only peaking #53 and #56 on Singles Official Charts. This was possible because of a limited edition 7" colored vinyl release this week and Kylie performing the song in multiple TV shows.
"Bedtime Story" in 1995 peaked at #04 because Madonna released the single on the week she performed at the Brit Awards and also a 12" single and a CD-single limited edition were also released that same week. If it wasn't for that it would have probably missed the TOP 10 like "Take a Bow".
T
TheTwoJakes
This post was from 2 years ago....and Madame X was a creative genius.
Smith Smyth
Really I didn't know she'd performed Ghosttown with Taylor Swift. WIll go straight to You Tube now, thanks for that!
Smith Smyth
I do love it when someone knows their Madonna chart facts. Thanks for that. Genuinely, I am such a nerd when it comes to stats and figures. 🤩
A
Andrew
Thought the numbers were way off.. This is for UK, Not US #1 albums
NN
Nu No
Numbers and sales are quite different in UK and US.
Also Taylor Swift sales in UK are quite low compared to her albums peak positions:
TOP Best selling Female Albums Artists in UK as August 2021 (over 3M. album sales):
#01 - Madonna - 23M
#02 - Whitney Houston - 12M
#03 - Celine Dion - 12M
#04 - Adele - 11M
#05 - Diana Ross - 10.7M
#06 - Barbra Streisand - 10.6M
#07 - Kylie Minogue - 10.5M
(these are the only Female Artists that sold over 10 million albums each in UK so far)
#08 - Pink - 8.1M
#09 - Rihanna - 7.8M
#10 - Tina Turner - 7.2M
#11 - Amy Winehouse - 6.1M
#12 - Dido - 6.M
#13 - Mariah Carey - 5.9M
#14 - Shania Twain - 5.4M
#15 - Beyoncé - 5.1M
#16 - Tracy Chapman - 5.0M
#17 - Britney Spears - 4.9M
#18 - Lady Gaga - 4.8M.
#19 - Cher - 4.5M
#20 - Sade - 4.2M
#21 - Leona Lewis - 3.9M
#22 - Gloria Estefan - 3.8M
#23 - Alanis Morissette - 3.8M
#24 - Norah Jones - 3.8M
#25 - Kate Bush - 3.7M
#26 - Susan Boyle - 3.6M
#27 - Dolly Parton - 3.5M
#28 - Anastacia - 3.5M
#29 - Taylor Swift - 3.4M
#30 - Alicia Keys - 3.3M
#31 - Janet Jackson - 3.3M
#32 - Shirley Bassey - 3.2M
#33 - Sheryl Crow - 3.1M
#34 - Christina Aguilera - 3.1M
#35 - Avril Lavigne - 3.1M
#36 - Annie Lennox - 3.0M
#37 - Gabrielle - 3.0M
#38 - Eva Cassidy - 3.0M
NN
Nu No
Would love that during 2022 The Official Chart Company would run an article about this with update sales for TOP 40 Best Selling Female Albums Arists of All Time in UK as some of these artist are selling quite a few albums right now.
Did Adele sold already enough to be #02 of all Time? With her new album out is quite possible.
Did Kylie Minogue sold enough to climb TOP 5 (her latest record is climbing back again this week to the TOP 20 region so she is probably close to get ahead of Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross)?
Has Taylor Swift been able to ignite catalog sales and jumped to TOP 20 (I doubt it but everything is possible as some records outside the TOP 100 still have some yearly respectable sales).
Will Janet Jackson new documentary help her catalog sales to put her on TOP 30 Best Selling album females again?
Please do your research right and double check it again and again as on last your last article for TOP 30 Best selling albums by Female Artists there were some incongruences with BPI certifications as on your list. Madonna "Ray of Light" album made the list and was behind Madonan "True Blue" when according to BPI "True Blue" album have 2 more platinum awards and was absent from your list with other albums that sold less making the list.
Anna Nekrylova
Madge is hated by Putin and her Ashcombe House ex-estate is just close to Salisbury. I want Madonna to have more success with albums than she has with singles. Because 13 #1 singles fits 13 #1 albums. Of course, it's better if she had more #1 singles, too. But it's impossible, for sure. I the eyes of marketers customers think she's not able to bear children (imaginable children of male customers) anymore and thus her art is considered "irrelevant". What a brilliant sexist paternalistic "Putin wannabe" logic the UK has! Go, Madge! You're younger than Queen Elizabeth ans still relevant! Madonna is unique in her attitude releasing each album as her debut LP. Cheers from Russia where she's actually banned because of her pro- Riot and anti-gayshaming displays of support. But the hypocritic radio stations say "it's because of BBC Radio 1 - we look up to UK and if UK considers her irrelevant so are we".
Hana
A Star Is Born Soundtrack should be counted as a Lady Gaga album because more than 50% are her songs
NN
Nu No
Not really, she does sing exactly the same songs as her cast co-star from the film and that's why is not considered her album.
SN Nash
This article is b.s.
Where’s Whitney Houston?
julesin09
2 UK number 1 albums. Bodyguard OST never charted on the main album chart. Charted on the compilation album.
Carl Smart
In the ground?
de Sascha
We all know that.
Mark Wislen
In the USA Billboard Top 200 Album Chart, 'The Bodyguard' is credited as a Whitney Houston Album, as well as a Soundtrack Album. So Whitney is allowed to have it as one of her No.1 Albums there - plus its 20 No.1 Weeks, (Non-Consecutive), between 1992 and 1993. In the UK it is only credited as a Soundtrack Album. At that time, (the 1990's), Soundtracks were only allowed in the UK Compilation Chart. 'The Bodyguard' was No.1 for 11 Weeks in that Chart. Had it been allowed into the Artist Chart, (& credited to Whitney), it would have given her 8 or 9 No.1 Weeks in that Chart...
DamionThorn
You’re referring to documented chart history as “BS?”
/facepalm
NN
Nu No
During the 90s all soundtracks where there was not one single artist singing more than 50% of the songs would be considered a compilation and not credited to the artist. "Evita" is credited to Madonna as she sings over 80% of the songs of the album.
AG
Alison Green
Dead as a Dodo Now We know what she did with her energy
NN
Nu No
She did sold around 12 million albums in UK (including Bodyguard OST) making her #02 best selling artist (almost tied with Celine Dion that sold around 12 million albums as well). Adele was at 11 million during the 2021 summer so she will probably step ahead during 2022 as her new album is not selling bad and her older albums are selling quite well for catalog albums right now.
Madonna is way ahead anyone with over 23 million albums sold in UK.
losigro
Hmm .. Britney Spears have 6 n.1 albums...
Hana
she never had no.1 album in the UK
GagasPancakeT!ts
Yes she does. She has 6.
GF
Gary Feld
nope. 0 in the UK
Mark Wislen
Britney has had Zero UK No.1 Albums, but 5 UK No.2 Albums. She has reached No.1 in the UK Singles Chart - 6 times...
F
fikrihendriawan
It's UK chart not US
DamionThorn
Not too swift in the uptake, eh?
NN
Nu No
Britney Spears had ZERO #01 albums but 8 that were TOP 10 in UK (5 of those albums peaked at #02).
She did have 6 #01 Singles/Songs and 23 TOP 10 Hit Singles in UK.
Check her Stats here:
https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/7405/britney-spears/