Women's History Month: The Most Record-Breaking Women in Music
Posted on Monday 18th March 2024 at 16:05
Written by
Jimi Arundell
It’s already been a massive year for women in music, with new star on the scene Raye winning a record-breaking six trophies at the 2024 BRIT Awards, plus further victories by Dua Lipa, SZA, Miley Cyrus, boygenius and The Last Dinner Party.
Read more on our coverage of women’s achievements at the 2024 BRIT Awards here!
BRIT Winners SZA and Dua Lipa, together with Shania Twain, have just been announced as the main acts on the Pyramid Stage of the Glastonbury Festival. This makes it the first year the majority of headliners will be female which is a massive landmark occasion for women artists.
Gigantic Tickets celebrates these advancements plus many more in our Women’s History Month campaign. Today, we shine a light on the amazing accomplishments of record-breaking women who continue to inspire us.
Read all our Women's History Month content here!
If you are looking to experience the joy of live music, click the link below and choose from hundreds of your favourite artists plus the very best selection of festivals. Don’t miss out, subscribe to our newsletter to be sent all the hot music deets, and make sure you follow Gigantic on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram.
Beyoncé
There can be no doubting the importance and sheer star power of Beyoncé. First rising to fame in R&B trio Destiny's Child, one of the best-selling girl groups of all time, she struck out as a solo artist in 2003 and has continued to rise with each new release considered a major event in pop music.
Now recognised as one of the greatest cultural figures of the early 21st century, Queen Bey has broken just about every record there is! Her seemingly endless list of accolades includes the most Grammy Awards won by a female artist, including her golden year in 2012 when she matched Adele’s record of the most wins by a female in one night set in 2010, taking home six trophies. She was also the first female artist to win Best Rap Performance at the Grammys and has won more Grammys than any other vocalist and any other female artist.
Beyonce was also the first act to debut at No. 1 with their first six studio albums in the US and she holds the record for most wins at the MTV Video Music Awards. Her On the Run II Tour in 2012 with her husband Jay-Z is the highest-ever grossing music tour.
Dolly Parton
The influence and legacy of country icon and living legend Dolly Parton can never be underestimated. Selling more than 100 million records worldwide, marking her as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, thanks to such huge hits as "Jolene", "I Will Always Love You" and "9 to 5".
Parton has set the bar for the most No.1 hits on the US Hot Country Songs chart by a female artist and most decades on the US Hot Country Songs chart.
When she isn’t busy recording and performing, the star singer-songwriter also leads Dolly Parton's Imagination Library which seeks to improve child literacy around the world. Her efforts have seen over 209 million books gifted to global readers since the project began in 1995, and the 20th anniversary in 2015 culminated with a record-breaking number of books distributed in a year. Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is now estimated to distribute two million books a month for free.
Whitney Houston
Actress and musician Whitney Houston is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest singers in the history of pop music. Her fans have bought more than 220 million of her records whilst the industry has rewarded her with eight Grammy Awards, 22 American Music Awards, and two Emmy Awards, to name just a few of her honours.
The trailblazing artist has also broken just about every record there is, having achieved the most (seven) consecutive US No. 1 singles and amassed the most cumulative weeks at No.1 for a solo female artist in both the UK and US singles chart with her signature song "I Will Always Love You" as written by Dolly Parton in 1992. It also became the best-selling single ever by a female artist in the US as featured on the biggest ever selling film soundtrack album for The Bodyguard.
Houston was also the first solo female to debut at No.1 on the Billboard albums chart with her 1985 self-titled first album and became the first ever recipient of the BET Lifetime Achievement Award.
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift is the songwriter of our time, switching from being a country star to becoming a global pop phenomenon cherished by dedicated Swifties around the globe. Given the passion of her fandom, it’s no surprise that Swift has spent more weeks at No.1 than any other female artist in history.
Swift is also the only living artist to have placed as many as 10 albums simultaneously on the US Billboard 200 chart on Saturday 4th March 2023. Not only is this an iconic chart record achievement, but it’s also made even more incredible by the fact it happened again two months later on Saturday 6th May.
Swift also broke three Spotify records following the release of her 10th studio album Midnights on Friday 21st October 2022 which became the most streamed album on Spotify in 24 hours with 184.6 million streams, plus the most day-one streams of an album on Spotify and the most streamed act on Spotify in 24 hours (228 million streams).
Swift’s Eras tour kicked off during March of last year and completes in December. The tour saw the star earn $1.04 billion (£840 million) by the end of 2023, already making it the highest-grossing music tour ever. Once again, her fans saw her break records when Swifties energetic dancing and jumping generated seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake at Lumen Field in Seattle on 22nd and 23rd July 2023 proving the “Shake It Off” singer has the power to move worlds.
Mariah Carey
R&B superstar Mariah Carey is referred to as the "Songbird Supreme" by The Guinness Book of World Records owing to her unique voice and historic Christmas track record. Carey commands a five-octave vocal range as heard on her hit singles "Hero", "Dreamlover" and "Without You" which are just a few of the 19 titles that have seen her become the female artist with the most US No.1 singles.
But the Queen of Christmas is best known for her huge anthem "All I Want For Christmas Is You". Love it or hate it, there’s no denying its popularity and the festive banger is the best-selling holiday song by a female artist, shifting more than 16 million physical copies worldwide. Streaming only increased its listenership as "All I Want For Christmas Is You” became the most streamed track in 24 hours on Spotify on Saturday 24th December 2023.
Carey has also received the largest-ever record deal, singing to Virgin/EMI in 2001 for a mind-boggling $21 million. This led to her receiving the greatest-ever payoff, with the label paying her an estimated $28 million to end the contract the following year owing to a turbulent relationship.
Madonna
Queen of pop and mistress of reinvention Madonna holds the crown as the best selling female artist of all time. Her chart-topping singles include "Like a Virgin", "Papa Don't Preach", "Like a Prayer" and "Vogue" have contributed to sales of an estimated 400 million records.
Her Sticky & Sweet tour of 2008-09 was the highest-grossing music tour by a female artist at the time, racking in a staggering $411 million then equal to £252.9 million.
Madonna has hit No. 1 in the UK album charts more than any other female artist with twelve records including the Evita soundtrack and has also topped our singles charts more than any other female artist. Over in the US, she was the first act to have scored 50 No. 1s on the Billboard chart and has also achieved the most No. 1s on the US Dance Club Songs chart with 50 titles.
Tina Turner
Queen of Rock N’ Roll Tina Turner broke out of her confines in the husband-and-wife duo Ike & Tina Turner to become a true icon. Following the release of her debut solo single "A Fool in Love" in 1960 and the end of her former band in 1976, Turner reached multi-platinum sales with the album Private Dancer which saw her win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1984 and contained the single "What's Love Got to Do with It".
Her run of smash hit singles continued with "Better Be Good to Me", "Private Dancer", "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" and "Typical Male" leading to the Break Every Rule World Tour which was the top-grossing female tour of the 80s and set a record at the time for the largest paying audience in a concert (180,000) in Rio de Janeiro.
Turner was also the first artist to score Top 40 hits on the UK’s Official Singles Chart in seven consecutive decades.
St. Vincent
Alt-pop and art-rock songwriter Anne Clark AKA St. Vincent may be a relative newcomer compared to the heavy hitters previously mentioned but she has already made a massive impact on the cultural landscape.
In 2015, she took home a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album for her eponymously titled debut LP, and then again with Daddy’s Home in 2022. This means she has won more Grammy Awards for an alt-music album than any other female artist.
Her new record All Born Screaming is set for release next month and sees her collaborate with Dave Grohl and Cate Le Bon and is expected to be one of the biggest albums of the year.
Billie Eilish
Alt-pop songwriter Billie Eilish is the undisputed mistress of penning sad girl anthems. Despite only bursting onto the scene in recent years, she already holds the records for “Most simultaneous US Hot 100 entries by a female" and "Youngest female at No. 1 on UK albums chart" with her debut LP When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? which dropped in 2019.
Eilish became the youngest-ever solo Glastonbury headliner in 2022, performing an electrifying Friday night set on the Pyramid Stage aged 20 years old which included “when the party's over”, “everything i wanted” and “bad guy”.
Eilish is also the youngest artist ever to earn the "triple crown" film music award, winning an Oscar, Golden Globe, and Grammy for "No Time to Die" as used in the James Bond movie of the same name starring Daniel Craig.