Sean Paul is the most streamed dancehall artist of 2023, with over a billion plays in a single year.
For as long as one can remember, Sean Paul’s dominance has been an indomitable force in the dancehall arena. It comes as no surprise that the internationally acclaimed star came out on top of the leaderboard for the most streamed dancehall artists on Spotify for 2023. It’s the monstrous numbers that have earned fans’ undivided attention and emphatic praise.
According to Sean Paul’s Spotify Wrapped stats, the Grammy winner earned more than a billion streams in 2023, which is undoubtedly a monumental achievement for the Jamaican native. This year, Sean Paul has racked up 1.2 billion streams across 123 million listeners in 184 countries. It’s commonplace for an artist to be celebrated when they hit the milestone of a billion streams on Spotify overall, so for Sean Paul to surpass that number in just one calendar year is simply outstanding.
To put into perspective how out of this world the dancehall star’s streaming numbers are, the next entry on the tally – though no easy feat either – was less than 20% of his streams, making the gap between first and second place unheard of, to say the least. The caliber of this latest accolade is not lost on Dutty Paul either, as he publicly thanked his fans for helping him reach these unprecedented new heights.
The singer acknowledged the mammoth accomplishment in a post on X (formerly Twitter), where he advocated for dancehall to be pushed to the world. “YOOO! Over a Billion plays in a year is MASSIVE!!! GIVE TANXX 2 all the amazin fans playing Mi music this year and forever. Let’s keep spreading #Dancehall across the globe,” SP wrote.
Spotify also shared which dancehall albums and songs were the most streamed this year, and Sean Paul, of course, dominated those tallies as well. Sean had 5 of the top 10 albums and 6 of the top 10 songs as lead artist, plus one as a featured artist. His most streamed album of 2023 was Mad Love The Prequel, while his most streamed single was “No Lie” featuring Dua Lipa.
On the albums list, SP nabbed the first four spots, with 2005’s The Trinity in second place, followed by 2002’s Dutty Rock and 2012’s Tomahawk Technique. Spice took fifth place with her debut album 10, which was released in 2021.
Popcaan makes a double appearance on the tally as his 2023 album Great Is He takes 6th place and 2020’s Fixtape lands the No. 8 spot. Gyptian’s Hold You from 2010 sits in between at No. 7, and rounding out the top 10 are Sean Paul’s Scorcha (2022) and incarcerated dancehall mogul Vybz Kartel’s Pon Di Gaza 2.0 (2010).
For dancehall songs, Sean Paul again stamped his name on the first five positions on the list. “Temperature” secured its place at No. 2, followed by his timeless breakout single “Get Busy” at No. 3. Spice’s “Go Down Deh” from her debut album, which features Sean Paul and Shaggy, also ranked highly at No. 4, and SP’s “She Doesn’t Mind” copped No. 5.
Also making an appearance on Spotify’s 2023 Top 10 Most Streamed Dancehall Songs Globally is Popcaan with “We Caa Done” featuring Drake at No. 6, followed by SP’s old hit “I’m Still in Love with You” featuring Sasha at No. 7. Charly Black claims the next two spots on the chart with “Gyal You a Party Animal” in its original and sped-up version respectively, and “Got 2 Luv U” by Sean Paul featuring Alexis Jordan completes the top 10.
