Koffee tops YouTube - ‘Lockdown’ No. 1 streamed song out of Jamaica for 2020
Published:Thursday | December 31, 2020 | 12:14 AMShereita Grizzle/Staff Reporter
YouTube’s end of year numbers are in, and it will perhaps come as no surprise that Koffee’s Lockdown is the number one streamed song out of Jamaica for 2020. The track, which currently has close to 38 million views on the popular streaming platform, bested Teejay’s hit single From Rags to Riches and Shenseea and Tarrus Riley’s Lighter to take the top spot.
Released in July, Lockdown raced to the coveted million-views mark on YouTube after only 48 hours, making it the first single from a reggae artiste to get to that mark in such a short period of time. It also trended at number one on the local charts for several weeks. At that time, Koffee told The Gleaner she did not expect the single to garner the amount of attention it did, but said the support from the public had her humbled and excited.
Fast-forward just six short months and the singer is again thanking the public for their support of the track. Pointing out that the single came from a very real place, Koffee said she believes the relatability of the song made it a hit.
“At the time I wrote it ( Lockdown), it was the beginning of the pandemic and I was looking forward to being able to go out again and have fun. I’m glad people were able to relate to it. 2020 has been an interesting year full of ups and downs and I’m just happy we are able to still connect with each other, especially through music,” she told The Gleaner in response to the recent YouTube numbers.
This is the second track from the entertainer to have generated the buzz it did on the local scene. The first was her breakout hit Toast, which was released in 2018. Toast, which remains a huge hit for the artiste, has close to 153 million views on YouTube. Still, all of the songs released from the Grammy-winning artiste have managed to break the million-views threshold. Pressure, which was released a few weeks after Lockdown, has almost 1.5 million views while the remix, which features Buju Banton, has just over 4 million. W, which was released in November 2019, has racked up close to 14 million views while Rapture, which was released a year ago (the remix with Govana included), has amassed more than 44 million views.
Back in July when Lockdown had just began to break records on YouTube, Koffee said despite her streaming success, she doesn’t think about racking up views when she makes music. Instead, she focuses on connecting with the people and allowing said connection to do the rest. “I try to keep my mind focused on the music. I think that for me, as an artiste, I want people to connect with the music I put out. I’m always happy when I can reach people on that level,” she said.