Jolin’s Butterfly Taiwan’s Biggest Selling Album in 2009

In 2009 in Taiwan dance music ruled, according to the album charts compiled by G-Music. Jolin Tsai (蔡依林, pinyin: Cài Yīlín) and Show Luo (罗志祥, pinyin: Luó Zhīxián), the queen and king of dance music respectively, had the biggest and second biggest selling albums in 2009.

Jolin’s album, Butterfly (花蝴蝶)), was released in March and spent 6 weeks at the number one position on the charts. Altogether it stayed in the top 10 album list for more than 6 months, as well as setting a record for most pre-order sales. Butterfly, Jolin’s tenth studio album, also introduced two hit singles– the title track and Real Men. Total album sales were an estimated 130,000 copies, at least according to this (Chinese language) news article. The sales figures were a vivid illustration of how consumers were deserting CD albums, presumably in favour of cheap/free downloads. By comparison, Magic, an album released by Jolin in 2003, sold an estimated 350,000 copies.

Show Luo’s Trendy Man (潮男正传) was released in the last week of 2008 and held the number one position for four weeks in total. He sold an estimated 50,000 copies of the album, and in the current dismal climate for record sales was one of the few artists to experience an increase in sales compared to earlier releases.

The number 3 highest selling album in 2009 was Faith Map (信心地圖), a compilation record featuring a collection of singers, some well-known and some not so much, under the banner New Artist Family 新藝人家族). Proceeds from the album’s sales went to aid those most adversely affected by the Global Financial Crisis and Typhoon Morakot. It was at number one for three weeks.

Number 4 was a bit of a surprise; pop rockers Mayday (五月天, pinyin: Wǔ Yuè Tiān) already had one of the biggest selling albums of 2008 with Poetry of the Day After (後青春期的詩), and those strong sales continued into 2009. This despite it not actually reaching the number one spot in the last twelve months. Rounding off the top five was Malaysian-born Fish Leong (梁静茹, pinyin: Liáng Jìngrú) with her album Fall in Love and Songs (静茹＆情歌 ), a collection of, well, love songs. Released at the beginning of the year it held the number one spot for a total of three weeks before being swept aside by the Jolin phenomenon.

The Top 10 Albums of 2009 were as follows:
1. Butterfly – Jolin
2. Trendy Man – Show Luo
3. Faith Map – New Artist Family
4. Poetry of the Day After – Mayday
5. Fall in Love and Songs – Fish Leong
6. Heart.Beat – Lee Hom Wang
7. Diamond Candy – Elva Hsiao
8. Princess – Jam Hsiao
9. Freedom – Jerry Yan
10. AMIT – A-Mei

The always dependable Asian Fanatics forums have a more detailed Top 20 list which can be found here.