Dancehall star Sean Paul has reached a major milestone: his 2016 collaboration with Australian singer Sia, “Cheap Thrills,” has been certified 11× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), marking over 11 million units sold — the first time the artist has achieved diamond-plus status for a single.
The hit remix, which transformed Sia’s 2015 track “Trills” into a tropical-pop powerhouse, topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks and dominated the all-genre Radio Songs chart for eight weeks — Paul’s longest run since his feature on Beyoncé’s 2003 smash “Baby Boy.” The track also earned both artists their first Grammy nominations in the best pop/duo group performance category and finished No. 66 on the Billboard Hot 100’s 2010s Decade-End chart.
Sean Paul first broke onto the Billboard charts in 2000 with hits like “Gimme the Light,” “Get Busy,” and “Temperature,” building more than two decades of cross-genre success. His 2002 album Dutty Rock won a Grammy for best reggae album and became his first top 10 project on the Billboard 200. On the Hot 100, Paul has achieved four No. 1 singles and 10 top 10 hits, with “Cheap Thrills” marking his first chart-topping single in over a decade.
Over the past several years, Paul has remained active, releasing two consecutive Grammy-nominated albums — Live n Livin (2021) and Scorcha (2022) — which reached Nos. 9 and 6 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart. In December, he co-headlined the Jamaica Strong benefit concert in New York for Hurricane Melissa relief, dropping a new anthem, “Faith We A Keep,” on the same day.
With 2016 nostalgia surging across social media, the diamond certification of “Cheap Thrills” highlights the enduring global appeal of Sean Paul’s infectious dancehall sound.
