Vybz Kartel didn’t bother with the small steps in Canada. His first certification in the country has arrived as a Double Platinum plaque, landing for “Fever” a full decade after the song first hit the streets.
According to Music Canada, the 2016 single has passed 160,000 units in combined physical sales and streaming equivalent units as of November 5, 2026.
That makes it the first time Kartel has been officially certified in Canada, and he skipped straight past Gold and Platinum to get there.
The timing says a lot about how “Fever” has aged. This isn’t a fresh release riding a launch week push. It’s a song that kept quietly piling up streams year after year until the numbers caught up with the reputation.
The Canadian news follows a busy stretch for the record overseas. Just four months earlier, on July 3, “Fever” earned Kartel his first Gold certification in the United Kingdom after passing 400,000 units, according to the British Phonographic Industry. The song had already picked up a UK Silver certification back in February 2023.
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America certified “Fever” Gold in February 2020.
Kartel also added a UK Silver plaque for “Summertime” in June 2025, so the certifications have been arriving steadily across several markets.
“Fever” first appeared in June 2016 on King of the Dancehall, an album released while Kartel was still behind bars in Jamaica. He was arrested in 2011 and convicted in 2014, and for years his catalog kept moving without him being able to tour or promote it in person.
That changed in 2024, when the Privy Council overturned his conviction and he walked free that summer. The record that had been carrying his name abroad during those years suddenly had its artist back in the picture.
Canada makes sense as the place for this milestone. Toronto has one of the largest Caribbean communities outside the region, and dancehall has been woven into the city’s sound and slang for decades.
Kartel saw that support up close when he played a sold out show at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto last year. Those crowds aren’t just buying tickets, they’re the same listeners keeping “Fever” in rotation on playlists and at parties.
There’s also the crossover angle. “Fever” has grown well beyond core dancehall audiences into something closer to a global party staple, and the video has now pulled in more than 100 million views on YouTube.
For longtime fans, plaques like this can feel like the industry finally putting a stamp on something they already knew.
For newer listeners who found the song through streaming, it might be their first introduction to an artist with a catalog that runs far deeper than one hit.
With Gold in the US and UK and now Double Platinum in Canada, the obvious question is which market moves next.
“Fever” is still climbing, and Kartel’s wider catalog is getting a fresh look from audiences who are only now catching up.
