IFPI Platinum Europe Awards - Q1 2007

Platinum Europe Awards

Platinum Europe Awards for sixteen international acts

19 April, 2007

A host of international stars were honoured with Platinum Europe Awards in the first quarter of 2007. Ten albums achieved their first award for sales of over one million copies in Europe, while a further six titles crossed the two million mark.

Platinum Europe Award Winners:

Recent Brit Award winner Amy Winehouse scooped her first Platinum Europe Award for Back To Black. This is the British star’s second album, released in September 2006, and includes the hit Rehab and title track Back to Black – her current single release. The album reached no. 1 in the UK and features both fifties and sixties music influences delivered in Winehouse’s trademark soulful style.

Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not by the Arctic Monkeys picked up its first IFPI Platinum Europe Award in January. The four-piece band from Sheffield shook the music scene in 2006 with songs such as I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor and When The Sun Goes Down which both shot to the top of the singles charts. Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not has gone on to win a plethora of awards including the 2006 Mercury Prize.

Electronic pop veterans Depeche Mode saw their album The Best of Depeche Mode Volume 1 surpass one million sales. The album features hits from the group’s three decade-spanning career, plus new track Martyr. The British three-piece last scored a Platinum Europe Award for 2005’s album Playing The Angel.

French rap artist Diam’s achieved an award for Dans Ma Bulle, the follow-up to her 2003 breakthrough album Brut de Femme. Dans Ma Bulle was the best selling French album in France in 2006, with smash single La Boulette topping the charts for six consecutive weeks. A star in her home country, Diam’s won Best French Act at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards.

Music veteran Herbert Groenemeyer also picked up another Platinum Europe Award to add to his previous tally of four. His latest album 12 sold a million copies in Europe within one month of its March release, going four times platinum in his native Germany. Enduringly popular within the German-speaking market, the 51-year-old has released more than twenty albums during his 30-year career.

Lily Allen burst onto the British music scene last year with her debut single Smile, which topped the UK chart last July. Her debut album Alright, Still has now sold over one million copies across the continent. Well-known for her blogs and MySpace page, social networking has helped propel the 21-year-old Londoner to the forefront of music trendsetters.

The Definitive Collection by Lionel Richie and The Commodores also received its first award. The 2003 album features classics such as All Night Long, Dancing On The Ceiling and Three Times a Lady. Front man Richie left the group in 1981 to pursue an esteemed solo career, but The Commodores were one of the most popular Motown bands of the 1970s.

Norah Jones gained an IFPI Platinum Award for her third album Not Too Late, which sold more than a million copies across Europe within its first two weeks of release. Following the success of her previous two albums Come Away With Me and Feels Like Home, her latest offering set the record for the most pre-ordered album on Amazon.com over its 11 year history.

Newcomer Paolo Nutini gained his first Platinum Award for over a million European sales of his debut offering These Streets. The album features hit singles Last Request and Jenny Don’t Be Hasty. The singer-songwriter initially released his first single – also entitled These Streets – as a free download last May. The track’s popularity translated into record sales success for the 20-year-old Scotsman.

Sean Paul, the Jamaican reggae and dance hall artist, picked up the first IFPI Platinum Award for his third album The Trinity, the highly anticipated follow up to his Grammy-winning album Dutty Rock. His latest offering has been a top ten hit in countries across Europe such as the UK, France and Austria and features smash hit singles such as (When You Gonna) Give It Up To Me and We Be Burnin’.

Double Platinum Award Winners:

European sales of Nelly Furtado’s March 2006 release Loose have gone from strength to strength, crossing the two million mark. The album is currently No. 1 in the European Billboard Album Chart. The Portuguese-Canadian artist also recently swept the board at the Canadian Junos awards, picking up five gongs. These included Best Album for Loose and Best Single for Promiscuous - a collaboration with Timbaland, who also produced the album.

Nirvana, the eponymous album from the rock band whose work shaped the rock music scene of the early 1990s, scoops its second IFPI Platinum Award. The album is the third from the band to be released following the death of singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain in 1994. It includes the previously unreleased You Know You’re Right, a song recorded during the band’s final studio session in January 1994, as well as a selection of the group’s most popular songs from throughout their career.

The most recent album from Pink I’m Not Dead also gains a second Platinum Europe Award for the American artist. It has sold across 22 countries, going gold or platinum in 14 markets. This is the fourth studio album from the pop-rocker and was released in April last year. Pink followed up her I'm Not Dead tour by opening for Justin Timberlake on his US tour dates this year.

Eyes Open from Snow Patrol gains its second Platinum Award as sales passed the two million mark. Originally from Northern Ireland, Snow Patrol were stalwarts of Scotland’s indie rock scene in the late 1990s before finding mainstream success with their top five hit Run in 2003. Released in May 2006, Eyes Open went onto become the biggest selling album of last year in the UK.

Comeback kings Take That are still enjoying success with their latest album, Beautiful World. The November 2006 release ended last year as the UK’s second biggest-selling album and has now sold more than two million copies across Europe. Since reforming after 10 years apart, the group have performed a sell-out UK arena and stadium tour, plus topped both the single and album charts. The four-piece have also recently sold out UK and European tour dates planned for later this year.

U2 also pick up their second IFPI Platinum Award for their retrospective U218 Singles, which contains 16 of the bands best known songs as well as the new track Window in the Skies and a cover version of The Saints Are Coming in collaboration with Green Day. U218 Singles picked up its first Platinum Europe Award in December 2006 after selling more than one million copies within its first month of release and has proved to be a worldwide hit. The Irish group released their first album in 1980 and have gone on to become one of the world’s biggest bands.

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About Platinum Europe Awards

Platinum Europe Awards honour the elite community of artists who have achieved sales of one million copies of an album in Europe. The Awards were launched in 1996 and they are now recognised as the established hallmark of success for artists in Europe.