Alright, although I know this thread will become a battlefield, I've always wanted to know the total sales of icon artists.

Can we [peacefully] try and add up all the album sales and single sales for iconic artists to try and [roughly] figure out the sales totals? Alright good.

Iconic Artists:
-Michael Jackson
-Madonna
-Elton John
-Whitney Houston
-Mariah Carey
-Celine Dion
-Elvis
-The Beatles
-U2
---etc---

So far, Ive tried four artists. I went to wikipedia (yes i know very unreliable) and added up both album and single sales.

Michael Jackson - 350,000,000
Madonna - 350,000,000
Whitney Houston - 175,000,000
Mariah Carey - 200,000,000

[these are really rough, with some rounding, so feel free to add more info etc.]

i still don't see mariah as an icon

Shut uP

350,000,000... OMG!
a lot of artists will die trying to sell a half of this lol

Celine Dion sold 175 millions album worldwide. I don't know about her single sales or her total sales ( album + singles) ! All what I know is that she's the biggest female selling artist of all time !

See thats what I'm trying to figure out. Album sales wise, Celine may be the biggest, but with singles included, i think Madonna is the biggest.

Its weird, MJ has sold more album sales wise (i think) than Madonna has; but because Madonna has stronger single sales than he does, shes equal to him.

Anyone else?

Those figures are really wrong. For one I know Madonna and Mariah are extremely close.

Yeah it's really hard to know. But I think overall Madonna sold more than anyone.

Once again its complicated. Your right, I think album sales wise, Madonna and Mariah are really close. But with singles included, I think Madonna outstrips her by quite a bit.

I give up because there have been so many claims on both sides...I even remember there used to be an article on Wikipedia about who was the best selling female recording artist of all time with long arguments for those 2 plus Celine Dion. But that's been taken down and now there's a simple list with no real source credited.

Their record labels should try and figure this stuff out. It's a pretty big claim.
I know that Warner has released a statement saying that Madonna has sold over 200 million albums (or was it 250?) Anyway, so thats pretty solid, and wikipedia is fairly accurate when it comes to single sales i think, so that pushes Madonna to either 300 or 350.

why in every show they always introduce mariah as the best selling female artist in history.... oprah, super bowl, ama, wma, vma, the list goes on...

madonna on the other hand i can only remember like a few where they introduce her as that...that was back in the 90s though...

if madonna really does sell the most, its more logical since shes been out almost a decade more than mariah. has like a gazillion more singles than mariah. sooo yeah...

but yeah just to make it official their record label should release some official numbers for these bítches cause the arguement will never end.

for what its worth i think mariah has paid her dues in such a short amount of time. shes been out for 16 years and look at much success shes had. in her first 10 years, where she sold most of her records, she wasnt too controversial and didnt do much publicity to get the success she had. well, along with celine.

well warner released a statement saying that madonna has sold more than 200 million albums worldwide. and different international charts like the IRMA, RIAA, and UK Charts have said that shes sold over 130 million for singles. So together its anywhere from 330-350 million.

Madonna has sold more than 200-250 including singles

She havent sold 200 millions of albums

In terms of Albums Sales she and Mariah are really close, if we include the singles obviously madonna has sold more

Madonna maybe will NEVER reach Michael jackson numbers thats a fact! and eventually the truth its that mariah can be the official best selling female artist ever.

They all are amaizing, nobody will ever touch them, thats why they are all in my opinion icons, their music will never die and will let a legacy thats what its to be an icon musically

see this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._music_artists

Actually, yes she has (and thats a fact.) Warner Brothers released a statement saying that she has sold over 200 million albums. Its the # of singles shes sold which is the question, but most charts have come to the conclusion that shes sold 130 million singles, which brings the total to 330-350 million.

I would like to see the numbres of each album. Not wikipedia please

dont have the individual album sales, however this is the link which states that she has sold over 200 million. (its official, its from warner) http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release...lease_id=97678 (its before COADF came out just so you know)