OMI Reacts To U.S. Success

It only takes one hit song to launch a career and worldwide publicity tour. OMI (pronounced 'oh-mee') is leading the Billboard Hot 100 for a fourth week as the top-selling song in the U.S. with his reggae-pop hit “Cheerleader”. Amazingly, OMI has not released an album yet.

The Jamaica-born singer/songwriter's path to fame has been a long climb. “Cheerleader” was a radio favorite in Jamaica in 2012 when it was discovered by Patrick Moxey, the president of Ultra Music, a dance label partly owned by Sony Music. Ultra commissioned two remixes, including the now-popular Felix Jaehn version, that became a hit in Europe in 2014.

“There is an unfortunate tendency for radio in particular to treat all reggae projects as a summer novelty,” Rob Kenner, the founder of dancehall reggae's Boomshots.com, told nytimes.com. “D.J.s pick one or maybe two records for the run-up to Labor Day, and they become a seasonal thing. People don't know the artists' names — they just know the melody.”

“Cheerleader” has more than 230 million views on YouTube and over 300 million plays on Spotify.

Here's what OMI has said about his success in the U.S. Quotation above via rollingstone.com.

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–via nytimes.com

–via nytimes.com
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–via billboard.com

–via billboard.com

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