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The Weeknd has become the first Canadian artist to achieve seven diamond certified singles, following the RIAA‘s certification of “Save Your Tears” and “Die For You.” He’s also the fourth overall artist to score seven or more diamond tracks, which marks at least 10 million equivalent units sold.
Additionally, his collaboration with Madonna and Playboi Carti, “Popular,” just got a whole lot more popular: The song has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. According to the RIAA, platinum certification for a song recognizes 1 million units certified in the U.S. for a song, and one unit equals either one permanent download sold, or 150 on-demand audio and/or video streams.
“Popular” was released a little over one year ago on June 2, 2023, via XO and Republic Records as the second single from the scrapped soundtrack album The Idol, Vol. 1 from The Weeknd’s HBO drama series The Idol. The official “Popular” music video exclusively debuted in February during Fortnite Festival, during The Weeknd’s takeover of the event’s Season 1.
The song peaked at No. 43 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 14 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. With “Popular,” Madonna joined the elite company of artists who have earned Hot 100-charting hits in five distinct decades. Madonna’s most recently released song to reach platinum status was the Justin Timberlake collab “4 Minutes,” which was released in 2008 and certified platinum in June of that year. Also this week, Madonna’s 1986 “Papa Don’t Preach” single was certified platinum.
“We had a different version of this song prior, so I’ve had these vocals for a while and I’ve kind of worked around it and then kind of kept it in the tuck. But now, it was time. And it felt right,” the “Blinding Lights” hitmaker (real name Abel Tesfaye) told Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe in an interview last June. “[Madonna is] the ultimate co-sign for this song, for this album, and for this TV show.”
Tesfaye is one of three artists to have produced seven diamond singles throughout his career alongside Rihanna and Post Malone, the latter of whom holds the record for the most diamond certified singles with nine.
Tesfaye also received platinum certifications for his 2023 The Idol hit “One of the Girls” with BLACKPINK’s Jennie and Lily-Rose Depp; the honor also makes Jennie the first female K-pop solo artist to earn a platinum single from the RIAA and marks Depp’s first platinum certification.
