Sean Paul and Beyoncé’s smash hit single “Baby Boy” is among a raft of new certifications Queen Bey received.
On Monday (August 8), Beyoncé became the fourth female artist to earn over 100 million Recording Industry Association of America certified single units as a lead artist. She now joins Rihanna, Taylor Swift, and Katy Perry as the only female artists to have achieved this feat.
The artist also received 54 new gold and platinum certifications, with 36 of those being platinum certifications for the first time or times over platinum. At the same time, 18 of those are gold certifications for the first time.
The singer, who recently released her album Renaissance, also has all 14 songs from her album BEYONCÉ certified gold or higher.
Her record-breaking streak did not end there as she also became the first female artist to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this year, and she is also at the top with Adele as the only female artist to rank at No. 1 on both the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 in 2022.
This historical milestone means that she is also the first female artist in the history of the chart to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with each of her first seven studio albums.
In the meantime, Beyoncé’s collaboration with Sean Paul is now 2X platinum, meantime in sold a combine 2,000,000 units in the United States. The song, released in 2003, was certified platinum on June 14, 2006, according to the RIAA. The song received 2X platinum certification on August 8, 2022, amid a resurgence of Beyoncé’s music due to her all of the songs on her new album Renaissance charting simultaneously on the Hot 100 chart on Monday.
Platinum certification means an album or song has reached the sales and streaming equivalent of 1,000,000 units sold in the US.
The track has become an item of controversy, according to Sean Paul, who shared earlier this year that he had sent his verse to Beyoncé for the track. The two had never met to record together, and they have also never performed the track together, something fans say has to do with Jay-Z being jealous and reportedly did not want Beyoncé around the Jamaican superstar. Jay-Z has never publicly addressed the rumors.
The song was the second single off the “Irreplaceable” artist’s Grammy-winning album Dangerously In Love, which was released on August 3, 2003. Sean Paul also added the track to his Grammy-winning album Dutty Rock.
Although “Baby Boy” is now among a throng of successful tracks, it was one of the biggest songs for both Sean Paul and Beyoncé’s careers as he was still growing mainstream, and she was proving her dominance as a solo artist after leaving Destiny’s Child.
The song was also a long-running No. 1 track on the Billboard Hot 100 chart after release and spent 29 weeks on the Hot 100 list while it spent nine (9) weeks at No. 1.
The song has 159 million views on YouTube and is also on her most streamed album on Spotify, which has 48 million monthly listeners.
