OMI cheerful over billion-stream club entry - Song makes inroads on Spotify, YouTube, Shazam
Published:Wednesday | November 25, 2020 | 12:15 AMYasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer
In May of this year, OMI’s Cheerleader quietly clocked the one billion mark on YouTube, a great feat by any standard. Then in November, when song recognition app, Shazam, released its ‘Top 100 Most Shazamed Songs of All-time’ list, there was Cheerleader, sitting comfortably in the number 19 slot, another remarkable feat. But there’s more. The song hit another billion milestone when streaming giant, Spotify, recently released its ‘Top 100 Most Streamed Songs’. Cheerleader debuted at number 76 on the list with 1.1 one billion streams, placing the Jamaican recording artiste in the history books. And what makes it even more remarkable is that Cheerleader could very well be called ‘the song that nearly wasn’t a song’.
“It was supposed to be an interlude and all it had [was] a verse and a hook. It didn’t even have a beat, it was a cappella,” OMI shared with The Gleaner. “But Mr Dillon heard it and said emphatically, ‘this is a song’. And with that, it was taken from one to 50 immediately, and I am grateful,” an overjoyed OMI said.
Clifton ‘Specialist’ Dillon’s recollection of the early beginnings of Cheerleader is similar. “After listening to it, I said, ‘no, no, no, this is a song’. I envisioned a cheerleader not only in a romantic sense, but also as anybody who has played a significant role in your life. We got offers from so many people to buy this song, but we turned them down. It is at one billion, and counting has now gone four times double platinum and has charted across the globe. We give thanks,” the songwriter, producer and artiste manager who played an instrumental role in the international successes of Shabba Ranks, Patra and a host of other acts told The Gleaner.
Cheerleader has reportedly topped the charts in 23 countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, and has been certified multi-platinum in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Sweden, Spain, and New Zealand. It has been certified Diamond in France and Germany and also topped iTunes in 55 markets, including Australia. Cheerleader also hit the top 10 in nearly 30 other markets worldwide. OMI first began developing the song in 2008, when he created its melody and Specialist refined over several years.
SONG OF THE SUMMER
Initially released in 2013, Cheerleader was a hit in Jamaica and Hawaii. A new chapter was heralded in 2015 when it was remixed by then up-and-coming, 20-year-old German DJ and producer Felix Jaehn. The remix spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was declared the song of the summer by Billboard.
“I am happy to join the billion-stream club, and I appreciate every single person and entity that has contributed to my success overall. My team always emphasises the importance of quality over quantity and providing good, clean, wholesome music, and here it is standing the test of time,” OMI said.
He is equally delighted with Cheerleader’s position on Shazam, which has even created a new playlist featuring the ‘Top 100 Most Shazamed Songs of all Time’. The danceable Cheerleader placed in the top 20 most searched for songs on Shazam’s all-time chart. Shazam uses a technology which works by analysing the unique sonic fingerprint of a song which matches the audio which a user sends via cell phone to the music in its database. Launched in 2002, it was called 2580 – the phone number users dialled to access the service. It then had one million songs in its database and took 15 seconds to process a user’s request. It now takes two seconds to comb through tens of millions of songs, including remixes, and cover versions. The company was sold to Apple for a reported $400 million in 2017.
“Cheerleader is definitely my biggest song, and before you even ask, ‘Am I threatened and feel the need to top it?’ No. I am not even trying. It is a stand-alone. A masterpiece. My fans who are here for the journey will see it through wherever it leads. It is time to celebrate, and I am celebrating by putting in even more work,” OMI shared.