In December 2021, Mariah Carey made music history when her yuletide song, ‘All I Want for Christmas,’ became the first holiday hit to be certified Diamond in the United States – meaning it sold the equivalence of over 10 million units.
A year later, progressive sales perennial hit pushed the yuletide tune to 12x Platinum for sales of 12 million – a feat that tied Katy Perry‘s ‘Firework‘ for the title of highest-certified single by a female act at the time.
And while Carey later passed Perry on the list by entering a three-way tie for the all-time position alongside Miley Cyrus and Lorde, Katy’s now clawed her way past the diva trio with 2013’s ‘Roar.’
Details inside.
On July 1 and July 2, Perry learned a few entries to her prized discography had their certification statuses upgraded at the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). See the full list below.
15x Platinum
- Roar (Single)
Diamond aka 10x Platinum
- Teenage Dream (Single)
- E.T. (Single)
- Teenage Dream (Album)
- California Gurls (Single)
Gold
- Smile (Single)
- Smile (Album)
- Harleys in Hawaii (Single)
- Witness (Album)
A historic set of updates (as we previously reported), a major callout is the 15x Platinum placement of ‘Roar’ makes it the highest-certified female song in history – leaving the three-way, 14x Platinum statuses of Carey’s ‘Christmas,’ Cyrus’ ‘Party in the USA,’ and Lorde’s ‘Royals‘ in its rear view.
In fact, when all acts are considered the only songs certified higher than ‘Roar’ are Post Malone and Swae Lee‘s ‘Sunflower‘ (20x Platinum), Journey‘s ‘Don’t Stop Believing‘ (18x Platinum), Lil Nas X‘s ‘Old Town Road‘ (17x Platinum), Drake‘s ‘God’s Plan‘ (16x Platinum), Ed Sheeran‘s ‘Thinking Out Loud‘ (16x Platinum), and Imagine Dragons‘ ‘Radioactive‘ (16x Platinum).
Perry’s certification upgrades listed above help push her cumulative single sales to 121.5 million in the U.S. – making her one of the best-selling female acts of all time.
Among women, only Rihanna (183 million) and Taylor Swift (137.5 million) have sold more singles over their careers.