PM David Cameron hails British music talents

“We should be extremely proud of our music industry" say PM at event celebrating BPI's 40th anniversary. Plus: The Top 10 biggest selling British albums, globally, revealed!

Rizzle Kicks, Chase & Status and Tom Odell performed at a music industry reception Wednesday evening which saw Prime Minister David Cameron pay tribute to the global success of British music.

The Prime Minister hailed British talent, as new music industry statistics showed that acts such as Adele, Emeli Sandé, One Direction and Ed Sheeran boosted UK artists’ share of album sales globally to an all-time high of 13.3% in 2012. Scroll down to view the global best selling albums by British artist in 2012.

Building on 2011’s global artist album share of 12.6%, British acts have now claimed the world’s top-selling album for five of the past six years.

The successes were marked at Wednesday's reception marking the BPI's 40th anniversary at London’s Kensington Roof Gardens venue, which was also attended by a host of British musical talents.

Speaking at the event, David Cameron said,

“We should be extremely proud of how our world-leading music industry continues to go from strength to strength, with a record share of the global market and with British acts having the world’s top selling album for five of the last six years. British music is enjoyed across the world and we will keep backing our creative industries that support jobs, create opportunities and contribute to the economy.”

BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor welcomed Cameron’s comments, adding:

“Music is fundamental to Britain’s identity as a nation and the world is singing with us. Led by Adele’s 21, the global top-seller for the second year running, our artists are having hits all around the world. From One Direction’s sensational, record-breaking US achievements, global smash albums from Muse and Mumford & Sons and breakthrough debuts for Emeli Sandé and Ed Sheeran, our musicians and labels are doing us proud.”

BPI Chairman Tony Wadsworth said,

“British music continues to be global export success story. It puts Britain on the map, culturally and economically, generating jobs both at home and abroad. We’ve built on a strong musical heritage to cement our position as a creative powerhouse with enormous potential for growth in the digital age. It remains important that Government supports our creative industries to give us every opportunity to compete on the world stage.”

2012 saw Adele’s 21 as the top-selling album in the world for a second consecutive year, with more than 26m sales to date. 21 was the biggest seller of 2012 in many of the world’s biggest music markets, including the USA, Canada, France and The Netherlands. Global hit albums from One Direction, Emeli Sandé, Ed Sheeran and Mumford & Sons also confirmed Britain’s record - One Direction became the first UK group to have their debut album enter the US chart at No.1, while both their albums – Up All Night and Take Me Home - made the global end-of-year top five.

British music staged something of an invasion into the US too, accounting for one in seven (13.7%) of all artist albums sold there in 2012, their biggest share on record. Adele, One Direction’s two titles and Mumford & Sons claimed four of the five biggest-selling artist albums.

2012 GLOBAL BEST-SELLING ALBUMS BY BRITISH ARTISTS:

© 2012 The Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.