Jackson had three singles that earned at least one platinum certification in Canada: "Billie Jean," "Beat It," and "Say Say Say." Jackson's Thriller is the highest-selling album in Canadian music history, the first and only album to obtain Triple Diamond certification.
He notched eight platinum or multiplatinum albums and 13 #1 singles, and had 47 tracks crack the Billboard Hot 100. He won 13 Grammy Awards, was inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of the Jackson 5 and as a solo artist) and received the American Music Awards' Artist of the Century Award.
Michael Jackson Official Site
Join us in celebrating the new U.S. Gold and Platinum certifications by the Recording Industry Association of America for Michael Jackson – covering 21 songs and three albums!! This brings Michael's cumulative digital singles certifications up to 40 million in the U.S. alone.
Dangerous was certified 8× Platinum by the RIAA and is one of the best-selling albums of all time having sold over 32 million copies worldwide.
Michael Jackson became the first African American artist with a Diamond certified album in 1984 with Thriller, just two years after it was released (it became 20x Multi-Platinum on October 30, 1984).
Post Malone is the artist with the most diamond singles.
Brooks' seven diamond albums are his self-titled debut, No Fences, Ropin' The Wind, The Hits, Double-Live, The Ultimate Hits and, coincidentally, Sevens.
Since the RIAA introduced its awards on 14 March 1958, Elvis Presley holds the record for the most platinum certificates for both albums and singles with 82.
1. "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus.
Billboard reports the single from the “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse” soundtrack is now 17 times platinum — the equivalent of 17 million copies sold — surpassing Lil Nas X's “Old Time Road,” which was 15x platinum.
When the popularity of disco music led to a huge boom in music sales in the seventies, RIAA created the Platinum Award to celebrate more than one million sales of a single or album—and the first Platinum Single Award was earned by Johnnie Taylor's “Disco Lady.”
And “Thriller” is recognized as the biggest selling album of all time. “Jackson won 17 Grammy Awards, including eight in one year, a record, and received 26 American Music Awards, including the Artist of the Century Award,” states the PR Newswire release.
Michael Jackson is the most decorated artist in history by a long shot. Over his career and lifetime, he won 834 awards including 13 Grammy Awards and 26 American Music Awards.
"Thriller" was released in November 1983 and peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. The single sold 10 million copies in the US alone, making it Jackson's best-selling single.
Diamond awards, honoring those artists whose sales of singles or albums reached 10,000,000 copies, were introduced in 1999.
Top-selling artists worldwide as of 2022
Perhaps unsurprisingly, British rock band The Beatles are top of the list for best-selling artists worldwide, with 183 million units certified sales. Second is Garth Brooks with over 157 million units sales, followed by Elvis Presley with 139 million units.
Elvis's First Gold (of Many)
With 146.5 million cumulative Album Awards, spanning 101 separate Gold (or higher) albums, Elvis has earned the most Gold Album Awards of any artist in RIAA history. Did You Know?
Although 50 Cent mentions diamond status in his posts, his first two albums haven't yet been certified diamond on the Recording Industry Association of America's website. According to the RIAA, as of February 2020, Get Rich or Die Tryin' — which celebrated its 18th anniversary last month — went platinum nine times.
Drake is tied with The Weeknd for the third-most diamond-certified songs in history.
Prior to Tupac's murder on September 13, 1996, the artist released four studio albums, 1991's 2Pacalypse Now, 1993's Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z..., 1995's Me Against the World and 1996's All Eyez on Me. In July 2014, All Eyez on Me was certified Diamond by the RIAA.