Dancehall star Sean Paul surpasses 12 Billion Streams on Spotify across his catalog. He extends his lead as the most streamed Jamaican artist on the platform.
Sean’s top songs on Spotify include Rockabye by Clean Bandit featuring Ann Marie and No Lie featuring Dua Lipa with 15 billion and 1.1 billion respectively.
Last year the Dutty Rock artist was the highest Jamaican streaming artist on Spotify with 1.2 billion streams earned between January 1 and December.
Sean Paul lends voice for the first time to the concerns of Jamaican citizens who have restricted travel due to the UK’s visa requirements.
The 51-year-old chart-topping artist also said that he supports Jamaica’s efforts to remove King Charles as the country’s head of state, citing UK immigration policies as a significant factor. In an interview on Good Morning Britain, he told broadcaster Noel Phillips, “Every child has to grow up and be independent – and I think that countries can be perceived in the same way.”
Sean Paul, whose real name is Sean Henriques, emphasized, “We need to prove ourselves. Salute to the great UK, and I’m not saying ‘so long,’ I’m just saying give us our chance to stand up and make you proud.”
Addressing how visa issues impact creative talents wanting to tour Britain, Paul explained, “We are ‘Commonwealth’. Many times we get scrutinized: ‘Oh, red light, come to the back here’, ‘Oh, Jamaican passport. Okay, cool, let me check you out more’. It’s unfortunate it has been this way for so long.”
This follows a statement from Jamaican state foreign affairs minister Alando Terrelonge, who told The Independent that Jamaica is urging the British government to remove visa restrictions for its citizens to allow free travel to the UK.
Terrelonge described the visa issue as “an ongoing concern.” Despite 2003 sanctions, Jamaica remains the only country with the British monarch as head of state that requires visas to enter the UK.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness conveyed Jamaica’s intentions to “move on” to Prince William and Kate during their royal tour of the nation.
All Jamaican citizens, including the King’s representative Governor-General Allen and Prime Minister Andrew Holness, are subject to these travel restrictions when entering the UK. Terrelonge suggested that as a compromise, Britain should begin by lifting travel restrictions on Jamaican creatives, business owners, and government members.
Terrelonge also mentioned that Jamaica aims to remove Charles as head of state by 2025, ending 350 years of colonial rule. “We remain hopeful that by 2025 we would have completed those reforms and removed the British monarch as the head of our democracy,” he stated. “We owe it to our ancestors, the framers of our constitution, and our national heroes for Jamaica to now walk as truly liberated and independent.”
The Jamaican government has established a Constitutional Reform Committee to oversee the republic-forming process. However, committee member Hugh Small recently informed the local press that the nation would not become a republic next year, urging the government to be frank with the public about the timeline.
