Amy Winehouse: The cash keeps flowing

Amy Winehouse’s music sales spike after her death.

LOS ANGELES:

The family of Amy Winehouse gathered at a North London cemetery on Tuesday, July 26, to bid farewell to their ‘angel,’ three days after she was found dead at her home. The Jewish funeral ceremony closed with her father Mitch saying, “Good night my angel, sleep tight; Mummy and Daddy love you ever so much.”

Since the passing of the British songstress, her fans have snapped up 50,000 copies of her CDs in the week ended July 24, compared to 44,000 units that were purchased in all other weeks of 2011, according to record sales tracker Nielsen SoundScan.

Her 2006 smash hit album, Back to Black, which includes the song “Rehab,” accounted for 37,000 of those units sold in the United States, which was the highest weekly total since March 2008. Winehouse’s debut album, 2003’s Frank, chalked up 7,600 unit sales, Nielsen SoundScan said.

Of the totals, more than 95 per cent were digital downloads. “Rehab,” in which the singer with the beehive hairdo belted out the famous lyrics, “They tried to make me go to rehab. I said ‘no, no no’,” was the most downloaded single with 34,000 digital sales in the United States.

Winehouse died at her London home on July 24, at age 27, so it’s likely the sales figures will spike even higher for the week ending Saturday, July 31, because some fans learnt of her death on the final day of the weekly tally. The US sales spike mirrors results in Britain where 24 hours after Winehouse’s death, Back to Black occupied the top spot on iTunes album download chart.

A similar case was seen when the King of Pop Michael Jackson died in 2009. The three best-selling albums in the United States in July 2009 were all by Mr Jackson: Number Ones sold 108,000 copies; The Essential Michael Jackson sold 102,000; and Thriller sold 101,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In total, 422,000 copies of Jackson’s albums were sold in the week following his death as fans snapped up everything in sight. (with additional information from BILLBOARD.COM)

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2011.