TORONTO – Two days after Whitney Houston was found dead in a Beverly Hills hotel room, sales of the pop superstar's music have soared and topped several charts.
Houston's most famous song, a cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," was the most downloaded single for much of Sunday on iTunes. Her albums "The Greatest Hits" and "Ultimate Collection" took the top two slots on Amazon.com.
There were no signs of foul play and no obvious signs of trauma on the 48-year-old singer's body when a member of her entourage found her dead in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel Saturday. Officials aren't ruling out any causes of death until they have toxicology results, and that could take weeks.
Global News takes a look at other well-known artists who saw their album sales soar shortly after their deaths.
Etta James
One week after her death, Etta James achieved her best and highest position ever on the Billboard album charts.
The legendary singer’s album “The Best of Etta James” rose from number
162 on the Billboard 200 up to 46—landing the star her highest-ranking
album to date.
According to Billboard, sales of James’ most famous classic "At
Last," have increased by 1, 361 per cent, or some 63,000 downloads, in
the six days since her death.
In total, the late soul star’s album sales have surged a whopping 378
per cent from the previous week. James died January 20 at the age of 73
after battling leukemia and other ailments, including dementia.
Amy Winehouse
Following her untimely death on July 23, 2011, Amy Winehouse’s
Grammy-award winning "Back to Black" became the bestselling album in the
U.K. in the 21st century.
For years, the 27-year-old fought a very public battle with drug and
alcohol abuse. A coroner’s inquest in October found that Winehouse drank
herself to death after a security guard found the soul singer with
empty vodka bottles in her room. The verdict found Winehouse died from
accidental poisoning and had lethal amounts of alcohol in her blood.
VIDEO: Forbes Top-Earning Dead Celebrities
of 2011
Michael Jackson
Following the 12 months after his death in 2009, Jackson became the
best-selling artist of 2009 by selling over 35 million albums worldwide.
The release of Michael Jackson’s posthumous album “Michael” on December
14, 2010 sold over 224,000 copies in its first week alone, making the
late singer a commercial viable entity all over again.
Jackson went to form one of the most successful solo careers ever and is
recognized by the Guinness World Records as the most successful
entertainer of all time. Jackson topped Forbes’ annual list of
‘Top-Earning Dead Celebrities’ for the second year in a row in 2011,
making a total of $170 million from sales of his music and stake in the
Sony/ATV catalogue last year.
Elvis Presley
Since his death in 1977 at the age of 42, with over 1,000,000,000 album
sales, Elvis Presley is the best-selling solo artist in the history of
popular music.
The King of Rock ‘n Roll recorded a total of 77 albums, and six
posthumously released singles were top ten country hits. With the help
of the Cirque du Soleil show ‘Viva Elvis,’ Presley’s 2011 earnings
amounted to $55 million.
- With files from The Associated Press
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