Brit pop conquers the world again

We've always been proud of our British pop that towers above that produced by our European neighbours, but for the past decade – when it comes to worldwide sales – we've come up against better-faring American artists.

But no longer, it seems. In a chart of this year's biggest-selling pop artists in the world, four out of the five best-selling acts hail from Britain.

Amy Winehouse's Back to Black, first released in 2006, sold 3.67 million copies this year, pushing its total sales to almost 10 million.

Coldplay released Viva la Vida just last month, but they have managed already to shift 2.6 million copies, putting them in second place. Leona Lewis sold 2.4 million copies of Spirit, putting her third, while Duffy is in fifth place after selling 2.25 million copies of Rockferry.

The Welsh singer left American rivals Madonna, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, Lil Wayne and Michael Jackson's re-released Thriller trailing behind in the Top 10. Only Jack Johnson outsold her, pipping her to fourth place.