Following her triumphant win at the Grammys earlier this month and last night's double win at the Brit awards, Adele now has another accolade to add to her growing list. Her album, 21, has now replaced Whitney Houston's 1992 soundtrack album The Bodyguard as the longest-running number one album by a female in the United States.
After winning six Grammy awards, Adele's second album enjoyed its most successful sales week, shifting over 730,000, according to a Reuters report. The album is now enjoying its 21st week at number one in the United States and has sold over 18 million copies since its release in February 2011. Her debut album 19 has also experienced a resurgence in popularity, selling 87,000 copies in the post-Grammys week. Many people anticipated that Whitney Houston could, ironically, be the very artist that prevented Adele from exceeding the record she set with The Bodyguard album, twenty years ago. Even with a spike in sales following Whitney's death the night before the Grammys, however, the appeal of the London songwriter was too strong even for a legend such as Whitney Houston to combat.
Whitney Houston did, however, take the second spot on the albums chart, with her Greatest Hits compilation selling 175,000 copies following her death. Whitney was found dead in the bathroom of her Beverley Hills Hilton hotel room on February 11, 2012. She was aged 48.