Sam Smith's Transatlantic Triumph

Sam Smith's debut album, In the Lonely Hour, is the only album to have sold 1 million copies in both the U.S. and the U.K. in 2014. The album topped the 1 million mark in both countries in the past week.

The Grammy-nominated album is one of just three albums to have sold 1 million copies in the U.S. so far in 2014 (along with the Frozen soundtrack and Taylor Swift's 1989). It’s one of only two “artist albums” to hit that plateau in the U.K. so far this year (along with Ed Sheeran's x).

In The Lonely Hour is the first album to sell 1 million copies in both the U.S. and the U.K. in a calendar year since 2011, when two albums achieved the feat: Adele's sophomore album, 21, and Michael Buble's Christmas.

Smith’s album is the first debut album to sell 1 million copies in both countries in a calendar year since Lady Gaga's The Fame, which achieved the feat in both 2009 and 2010. (One other debut album did this in 2009: Susan Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream.)

In the past five years, only three other albums have sold 1 million copies in the U.S. and the U.K. in a calendar year: Buble’s fourth major-label studio album, Crazy Love; Kings of Leon's fourth studio album, Only By The Night; and the Black Eyed Peas's fifth studio album, The E.N.D. All three of these albums did it in 2009.

U.S. sales are authenticated by Nielsen SoundScan. U.K. sales are authenticated by the Official Charts Company.

Smith told OfficialCharts.com: “OFFICIALLY sold 1 MILLION copies of In the Lonely Hour! To say I am ecstatic is a huge understatement. Thank you so much to every single person who has purchased my album.”

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