Lil Nas X‘s “Old Town Road” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus is now the highest certified song ever in the history of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
“Old Town Road”, originally released in December 2018, is now a 14-times platinum song in the United States, meaning it has built up 14 million in equivalent song units.
To break this down, RIAA explains that “one equivalent song unit is equal to a single digital song sale, or 150 on-demand audio and/or video streams.”
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The remix with Billy Ray Cyrus, which was released four months after the original was released, made music history of its own topping the Billboard Hot 100 charts for 19 consecutive weeks till Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” took over the number one spot.
This feat overtakes John Legend’s “All of Me” and “Despacito” by Daddy Yankee, Luis Fonsi, and Justin Bieber, both certified 13-times Platinum hits.
The hitmaker celebrated his new milestone on Twitter.
“OLD TOWN ROAD IS OFFICIALLY 14 TIMES PLATINUM! MOST PLATINUMS FOR ANY SONG EVER! LET’S GOOO!”
OLD TOWN ROAD IS OFFICIALLY 14 TIMES PLATINUM! MOST PLATINUMS FOR ANY SONG EVER! LETS GOOO! pic.twitter.com/JsqUdIapfQ
— nope (@LilNasX) January 9, 2021
Billy Ray Cyrus could not hide his joy either and joined the celebrations on the social network.
“Incredible. I’m speechless. #OTR is now 14x platinum and the most certified song in music history. Thank YOU!”
Incredible. I’m speechless. #OTR is now 14x platinum and the most certified song in music history. Thank YOU! @LilNasX @YoungKio @Dopebyaccident @theRonPerry @ColumbiaRecords @bolooki pic.twitter.com/qXGJ1ytvLe
— Billy Ray Cyrus (@billyraycyrus) January 9, 2021
The pair’s collaboration earned them three nominations at the 2020 Grammys. They however walked away with two awards for Best Pop/Duo Performance and Best Music Video.
