Eminem had bestselling album in Canada in 2013

TORONTO – Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2 was the bestselling album of the year in Canada after edging out Celine Dion, while overall album sales dropped six per cent according to a report released Friday by Nielsen SoundScan Canada and Billboard.

The Detroit rapper’s latest opus moved 242,000 units, placing just ahead of Dion’s Loved Me Back to Life, which sold 231,000.

Rounding out the top 10 bestselling albums were records by Imagine Dragons, Mumford & Sons, Pink, Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake, the Lumineers, Michael Buble and One Direction.

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A stunning share of Dion’s sales were derived from physical album purchases — 208,000 total, over 150,000 CDs sold by Eminem.

After Dion and Buble, Drake’s Nothing Was the Same was the next-best selling album by a Canadian artist with 108,000 units sold, while Johnny Reid’s A Christmas Gift For You and Arcade Fire’s Reflektor rounded out the top five.

A total of 29.3 million albums were bought in Canada in 2013 (including digital and physical), while sales of physical CDs declined 15 per cent. Digital track sales upticked slightly by two per cent while digital album sales increased by nine per cent.

Jazz was the fastest-declining genre, with sales dropping by 20 per cent, while rap was the genre to experience the most growth in Canada with a 22 per cent boost over 2012.

The top-selling digital track of the year was Robin Thicke’s suggestive “Blurred Lines” with 692,000 units sold, followed by singles from Avicii and Pink.

The bestselling digital tracks by Canadians — other than Thicke, a citizen by virtue of his actor father Alan — were Classified’s “Inner Ninja,” Serena Ryder’s “Stompa” and Drake’s “Hold On, We’re Going Home.”