OMI enters Billboard Top Ten
Recording artiste OMI has entered the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 with the remix of his song Cheerleader by Germany-born Flex Jaehn. The single currently sits at number 7, ahead of several United States-based artistes.
OMI’s recent success puts a temporary end to a recent top 10 drought for Jamaican artistes as it relates to the Billboard Charts.
No other Jamaican reggae/dancehall artiste or song has broken into the Billboard Hot 100 in recent times, except for collaborations and samples like Post to Be by Omarion, which borrows lines from Chakka Demus and Pliers’ Murder She Wrote. 2 On by Tinashe which borrows the work of Delano and other Jamaican writers. Kanye West’s Mercy, which samples Super Beagle’s Dust A Sound Boy as well as the single All Day, also produced and performed by Kanye West, but sampled Dance With Me performed by Jamaican actor/artiste Noel Ellis, otherwise known as Rosa Rose. The latter is currently seated at number 91 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Cheerleader was originally produced as a ska record, but was remixed and rereleased in May 2014 by the United States-based recording label, Ultra Music. The record has climbed steadily on several foreign radio charts. It has also been playlisted on several radio stations, including the French radio station NRJ, East FM and Swedish radio station SR P3.
The single has been atop the Reggae Digital Songs chart for 12 consecutive weeks and has sold 641,000 downloads to date, with more than half of its release to date total scanned in just the last three weeks. Cheerleader also led the Official UK Singles chart for four weeks.
Also on the Billboard Hot 100 is dancehall/reggae artiste Shaggy with his effort I Need Your Love. That record currently sits at number 71.
Omi is known to dabble with several Jamaican genres including ska, mento, dancehall and reggae.
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