Dancehall superstar Sean Paul and Australian singer-songwriter Sia have added another accolade to their 2015 hit song “Cheap Thrills.”
The single was certified 9x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on July 3, 2024, signifying 9,000,000 units sold in the United States through sales and streaming.
It is Sean’s first feature to reach the milestone and the first single featuring a dancehall artist to be certified 9x Platinum.
Produced by Greg Kurstin, the original “Cheap Thrills” was released December 16, 2015 then the Sehan Paul remix released February 11, 2016 climbed from No. 3 to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, surpassing Drake’s “One Dance” featuring WizKid and Kyla, which held the top spot for ten weeks.
The song, from Sia’s seventh studio album This Is Acting, was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.
Other singles from “This Is Acting” to be certified on July 3 include The Greatest featuring Kendrick Lamar becomes 4x Platinum (4,000,000) and “Unstoppable” is 3x Platinum (3,000,000).
Sia also earned her first Diamond certified single for selling 10,000,000 units in streams and sales of “Chandelier,” the lead single from her sixth studio album 1000 Forms of Fear (2014)..
“It’s amazing to see the ongoing success of ‘Cheap Thrills’ globally. Sean always wanted to collaborate with Sia, and we were thrilled when it reached No. 1,” Sean Paul’s manager, Steve “Urchin” Wilson, told World Music Views.
“Cheap Thrills” marked Sia’s first Billboard No. 1 song and Sean Paul’s fourth, his first in ten years. Sia became the first woman over 40 to top the Billboard Hot 100 since Madonna in 2000. The song’s lyric video, released in February 2016, has garnered over 1.6 billion views on YouTube.
The song was previously certified 8x Platinum on January 12, 2022.
The official music video ranks No. 105 highest streaming music video on YouTube of all time, surpassing 1.8 billion streams. It also surpasses 700 million streams on Spotify, Sean Paul’s 4th highest streaming song and Sia’s 9th.
Originally written for Rihanna’s Anti album, “Cheap Thrills” was rejected and subsequently recorded by Sia for her album This Is Acting, which featured songs initially intended for other artists
