Ahead of tonight’s BRIT Awards, Amazon.co.uk has revealed which nominated artists won in the sales stakes by announcing its top-selling artist in each category.
Ed Sheeran is this year’s big winner, with sales of album X seeing off the competition for both the Mastercard British Album and British Male Solo Artist awards. Rather Be is Amazon.co.uk’s biggest-selling British Single, and sales of Uptown Funk – despite only being released in December – have outstripped those of all other nominees for British Video.
An extremely successful year for Paloma Faith sees album A Perfect Contradiction outsell all four other nominees in the British Female category combined. Meanwhile, Coldplay leave One Direction behind in the race for the British Group award with sales of album Ghost Stories.
The data shows that male solo artists dominated British music sales in 2014. Nominees in the British Male Solo Artist category significantly outperformed those up for British Female Solo Artist. When combined, the five male nominees’ album sales more than quadruple those of their female counterparts.
“British music has achieved a lot to be proud of in the past year and artists like Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith continue to reign in the charts in the UK and abroad,” said Steve Bernstein, Director of Amazon EU Digital Music. “With rising male talent James Bay crowned this year’s BRITs Critics’ Choice, it looks as though our passion for British male soloists is here to stay.”
Amazon.co.uk’s top-sellers across tonight’s yet-to-be-announced award categories are listed below:
BRIT Award 2015 category leaders based on Amazon.co.uk sales data*
British Male Solo Artist
Ed Sheeran – X
British Female Solo Artist
Paloma Faith – A Perfect Contradiction
British Group
Coldplay – Ghost Stories
British Breakthrough Act
Sam Smith – In the Lonely Hour
British Single
Clean Bandit ft. Jess Glynne – Rather Be
Mastercard British Album
Ed Sheeran – X
British Video
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk
International Male Solo Artist
John Legend – Love in the Future
International Female Solo Artist
Taylor Swift – 1989
International Group
Foo Fighters – Sonic Highways
*Data comprises total sales to date on Amazon.co.uk of album or single qualifying artist for a BRIT Award
