As Adele marks one year on the Billboard charts, we look at 21 amazing facts about the equally amazing 21. By Gil Kaufman and James Montgomery Adele Photo: Jeff Kravitz/ FilmMagic The traditional gift for a one-year anniversary is paper. Though, considering that Adele has sold more than 6 million copies of her breakthrough album 21 since its U.S. release one year ago this week, trust us, paper is the one thing the Grammy-winning British songbird has plenty of. What she’s also racked up over the past 52 weeks is a gang of awards, records and amazing feats of music industry daring that most people thought just weren’t possible in the download era. So, on the anniversary of the unstoppable album’s chart debut, we thought we’d take a look back at the year that was, with 21 amazing facts about 21 . 1. In February 2011, 21 debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with first-week sales of 352,000 copies. It stayed in the top three for 24 consecutive weeks and has never fallen out of the top 10 since its release. 2. In the year since its release, 21 ‘s lowest chart position was #7, in November 2011. The following week, it was back at #2, and it hasn’t left the top three since. 3. With her , Adele has broken the record previously held by the late Whitney Houston ‘s soundtrack to “The Bodyguard” by notching 21 non-consecutive weeks at #1. 4. The album’s 21 weeks atop the chart also mean that it spent a staggering 40 percent of the past year as the country’s #1 album. 5. 21 was not only the best-selling album of 2011 in the U.S. — with sales of more than 5.8 million — it’s also the best-selling digital album of all time in this country, racking up more than 2 million downloads to date. 6. The album debuted at #1 in the U.K. upon its release on January 30, 2011, and held that spot for four weeks. After she sang “Someone Like You” on the BRIT Awards telecast, sales increased by nearly 900 percent on Amazon.co.uk within an hour of her performance. She also set a Guinness World Record in September 2011 by becoming the first female artist to have two singles and two albums in the U.K. top five simultaneously. 7. 21 was also the best-selling album of the 21st century in the U.K., passing Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black. 8. 21 has topped the charts in 27 different countries, including Switzerland, Sweden, Mexico, Poland and Greece, and has sold more than 17 million copies worldwide. 9. In the U.S. alone, 21 has sold more copies in one year than Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way, Rihanna’s Talk That Talk and Beyonc
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