Sean Paul And Sia Have Still Never Met In Person

Dancehall superstar Sean Paul has revealed that he still has not met Australian singer-songwriter Sia, in person, even though he has collaborated with her on two major songs in five years.

Sean Paul and Sia recently released visuals for their second collaboration Dynamite, which comes five years after their mega-hit 2016 Cheap Thrills, so it might come as a surprise for many that the duo has not yet met face-to-face.

In a recent interview with British GQ, Sean was asked about the “first time he met Sia”, during which he said an actual meeting with the 45-year-old, has never transpired.

“We’ve never met in person, which is crazy.   My management asked if I would consider doing a song with Sia and at that time I’d just been musically schooled by my mum. She was like, “Sia is a great artist,” but I thought she meant [“Gangnam Style” rapper] Psy,” the Temperature artist told GQ.

Sean told GQ that it was ironic that his mother—who had introduced him to old school artists and bands such as The Beatles, Cat Stevens and Abba, as a youngster—was now in his older years, telling him about a younger artist whom he had never heard of back then.

“I was arguing with her: ‘Psy is a great artist from South Korea. I’ve only heard one song from him,” and she was like, ‘No, man. Sia!” he recounted.

In July 2016, Cheap Thrills, ascended from number three to the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100, unseating Canadian rapper Drake‘s One Dance which featured WizKid and Kyla, and which had held the top spot for 10 weeks.

Cheap Thrills was Sia’s first Billboard top 100 song, and also marked Sean’s fourth top song, and his first chart-topper in 10 years.

The success of Cheap Thrills gave Sia the distinction of becoming the first woman over 40 years old to top the Billboard Hot 100 since Madonna topped the Hot 100 with Music in 2000.   The track sold 1.7 million copies in the United States in 2016, becoming the tenth best-selling song of the year in the country, and by May 2017, had sold 1.9 million copies in that country.

In an Access Hollywood interview in May last year, Sean had also said that he and Sia had masterminded Cheap Thrills over the internet.

“I haven’t met her yet… no we’ve never met.  We did the song over the internet.  She sent me a big bunch of flowers when it went to number one,” Sean had said at the time.

The Cheap Thrills remix with Sean Paul, which formed part of Sia’s seventh studio album, This Is Acting, was nominated at the 59th annual Grammy Awards for the Best Pop duo/Group performance award.

Cheap Thrills was originally written for Rihanna’s Anti album, whose Diamonds Sia had also co-written.  However, Sia had ended up recording it herself for her own This Is Acting album which entirely featured songs she had originally written for other superstars and which were ultimately rejected, according to Billboard.

In Australia, Cheap Thrills was certified Quadruple Platinum for sales of more than 280,000 copies and reached number six on the charts.  Over in neighbouring New Zealand, the song reached the number three position and was certified Double Platinum for sales of more than 30,000 copies.

In the UK, Cheap Thrills peaked at number two for four weeks and was also certified quadruple platinum for sales of more than 2.4 million units.

In terms of Dynamite which is from Sean’s upcoming Scorcher album, the song’s music video has racked up just under 1.4 million views on YouTube.

“Dynamite started out as just a good vibe song… Paul said in a statement. “After recording ‘Cheap Thrills’ Sia and I knew we would record another single and ‘Dynamite’ is the second installment,” Sean Paul had said in a statement.

“Banx and Ranx, Greg Kurstin, myself, and Sia worked on this single and I hope people gravitate toward it like our first single. ‘Dynamite’ is another feel-good record for me and I just want to thank Sia and her entire team, my team Duttyrock, my management team, and big up my mom who introduced me to Sia’s music,” he added.