Sean Paul Credits Mom For Putting Him On To Sia
Dancehall artist Sean Paul credited his mother for introducing him to the music of international singer Sia. The two recorded the 4X Platinum hit Cheap Thrills in 2016, and last month reunited for the single Dynamite.
In a clip posted to his Twitter on November 17, Sean Paul detailed some of his biggest musical inspirations but admitted that it was his mom who broadened his musical scope by making him aware of the Australian singer and songwriter.
“So, musical influences…I mean, from the great Bob Marley, to (The) Beatles. My mom used to play a lot of different records. She’s actually one of the first people to put me on to many musicians—Cat Stevens, and all these greats,” he began.
“It’s funny enough that she is the one who introduced me to Sia’s music. One day, she was like, ‘yo, I really like that artist named Sia.’ So, at the time I wasn’t really familiar with her name. I knew the song, but I didn’t know her name. So I was like, ‘you mean Psy?’ And she was like no, and I said, ‘yeah, Gangnam Style Psy’ and she said ‘no man, Sia. She sing a song called Chandelier.’ She sung it for me and I was like woah, I know that song,” Sean Paul explained.
Turns out, he was always a fan of Sia’s music but he thought of Rihanna when he heard her song.
“I thought that was Rihanna for some reason. Big up to my mom. Schooling me from back in the day and up to now, still schooling me. That led up to me actually doing Cheap Thrills with Sia and now, we just did the latest installment Dynamite which is out right now by the way,” he concluded.
If U ever wanted 2 kno…dis is who inspires mi pic.twitter.com/Nm9oqvUB36
— Sean Paul (@duttypaul) November 17, 2021
Cheap Thrills has racked up 1.6 billion views on YouTube, while their latest single Dynamite has amassed 1.4 million so far.
Cheap Thrills was nominated for the 2017 Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Sean Paul added his own lyrics to the remix of the song which was originally written by Sia and American record producer Greg Kurstin.
In the United States, Cheap Thrills topped the Billboard Hot 100 becoming Sia’s first No. 1 single on the chart and Paul’s first since Temperature in 2006. It also topped the national Mainstream Top 40 and Radio Songs charts.
Dynamite is the second single from the Island Records artist’s upcoming album Scorcher which is yet to have a release date.