Platinum Europe annual roundup: new qualifiers, more countries and European acts prosper in 2000

January 16, 2001 - The success story of the IFPI Platinum Europe Award continued in 2000 as a record number of nationalities featured among qualifiers and more artists achieved the Award than in any year since its launch in 1996.

Artists from 14 countries achieved Awards last year, up from 11 in 1999 - the new countries represented being Netherlands, Denmark and Norway. This is the first time Norway has received a Platinum Award since the awards started. The number of artists represented rose for the fourth year running to a total of 74. Platinum Europe, which honours albums achieving sales of over one million in Europe, was in total achieved by 80 different albums (compared to 82 in 1999).

Platinum Europe is the recording industry's pre-eminent award for album sales in Europe and is celebrated at an awards ceremony every two years. The third Platinum Europe awards ceremony, attended by EC President Romano Prodi and Vice-President Neil Kinnock, took place in Brussels in July 2000.

In terms of album units, the new Platinum Europe qualifiers of 2000 sold more heavily and more quickly than in previous years. Awards went to 65 new albums during the year, on a par with 1999, but these generated some 107 million units in sales, sharply up on the 92 million units recorded in 1999.

Top-performing albums qualifying for the first time in 2000 included the Beatles' 1 - the highest award of the year with sales of 7 million by the year-end, and Santana's Supernatural with sales of five million. Other albums going multi-platinum in 2000 included The Corrs In Blue, Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP, Madonna Music, Moby Play, U2 All That You Can't Leave Behind, Whitney Houston Greatest Hits and Robbie Williams Sing When You're Winning.

In addition to those 65 new qualifying albums, there were 15 previously-qualifying Platinum Award albums achieving Double and Multi-Platinum status during the year. These included Shania Twain's Come on Over, which went six-times Platinum during the year. Other multi-award winners included Britney Spears Baby One More Time, Eros Ramazzotti Eros, Macy Gray On How Life Is, Travis The Man Who and Westlife Westlife.

It was another consistently good year for European repertoire, with 53 of the albums awarded featuring European acts - 66% of the total. European repertoire has underpinned the success of Platinum Europe for five years in a row, accounting each year for over 60% of awarded albums.

Notable successes among the continental European artists in 2000 included A Teens from Sweden, Dutch artist Andre Rieu, Italy's Eros Ramazzotti, France's Hélène Segara, Belgium's Helmut Lotti, Germany's Herbert Grönemeyer, Spain's Hevia and Norway's Lene Marlin.

The UK and USA once again brought the most qualifiers to Platinum Europe, with 26 and 20 allbums respectively. Ireland continued to show its strength as a talent hothouse, with 7 albums and artists including U2, The Corrs, Enya and Westlife. Germany took 5 and France 4 Awards.

Male solo artists fared well during the year representing nearly 40% of the total and with more than one third of all awarded albums. Prominent male artists included Alejandro Sanz, Craig David, David Gray, Eminem, Eros Ramazzotti, Moby, R. Kelly, Ricky Martin, Robbie Williams and Sting.

Full list of Awards below

For further information contact:
Adrian Strain, Fiona Harley, IFPI Communications
Tel: +44 (0)20 7878 7900

* albums receiving first award before 2000