On Friday, October 6th, Sean Paul celebrated a major achievement in his music career as his 2016 song “No Lie” featuring Dua Lipa reached over 1 billion plays on Spotify. This marks the first time that Sean Paul has achieved this feat as a lead artist on the platform. Additionally, he is only the fifth Jamaican artist to reach this milestone on the streaming service.
In an interview with DancehallMag, Paul expressed his gratitude for his career accomplishments and acknowledged the influence of the seasoned artists who have paved the way in the genre. He stated that he has always looked up to them and learned from their experiences. Paul also extended his thanks to his fans, describing the experience as a humbling one.
Clean Bandit’s popular song “Rockabye” from 2018, featuring Anne-Marie, has reached an impressive 1.4 billion plays on Spotify. Meanwhile, his solo tracks “Temperature” from 2005 and “Get Busy” from 2002 have also gained significant popularity with 712 million and 449 million plays, respectively.
The popularity of No Lie isn’t limited to just Spotify. By April 2022, the music video directed by Tim Nackashi had reached over a billion views on YouTube, a remarkable achievement. Additionally, it achieved double platinum status in the United Kingdom in February of the same year due to sales and streams exceeding 1,200,000 units.
Sean Paul’s hit song “No Lie” has become his most enduring single on the UK Singles chart, having spent 30 weeks on the chart and reaching a peak position of No. 11. Additionally, it made appearances on the Billboard Global 200 chart at No. 184 and the Billboard Global Excl. US chart at No. 113.
It’s a great feeling to have your songs gain popularity and keep growing over time. I remember when “No Lie” first came out, it was a really cool song that a lot of people enjoyed. It started off with small streaming numbers, but it just kept going and going, which is amazing!
On October 5, 2023, Sean Paul graced the stage at the Billboard Latin Music Awards in Coral Gables, Florida. Interestingly, Dua Lipa, who was not very well-known when they recorded their song together, has now achieved the impressive feat of having nine of her tracks hit this streaming milestone.
In a recent interview, Sean Paul spoke highly of Dua Lipa and how kind she was to collaborate with him on their hit song “No Lie.” He expressed admiration for her rise to fame and felt proud to have worked with her before she became a household name. “No Lie” was produced by Sermstyle and Phillip Kembo and served as the lead single on Sean Paul’s EP “Mad Love The Prequel,” which was released in 2018 under SPJ Productions Ltd and in partnership with Island Records. The track was also included in the super deluxe reissue of Dua Lipa’s debut album, “Dua Lipa: Complete Edition,” that same year.
According to Paul, the idea to approach Dua Lipa for the song No Lie came from someone in his management group. Emily Warren had already done a demo of the song with her unique vocals, and Paul knew that Dua Lipa was the perfect fit for the track when he heard her demo. Sales tracker Luminate reported that Paul’s Mad Love EP has sold 348,000 units in the U.S., including 1,500 pure album sales and 621 million streams. The EP also featured collaborations with David Guetta, Becky G, Major Lazer, Migos, and Tory Lanez. A few Jamaican-led songs have surpassed the 1 billion plays mark on Spotify, including OMI’s Cheerleader (Remix) and tracks by producer Walshy Fire from Major Lazer.