“CHEERLEADER” CRACKS BILLBOARD TOP TEN, GOES GOLD FOR OMI!

SINGER Omi has broken into the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart in the United States, making him the seventh Jamaican artist to do so.

The Felix Jaehn remix of his 2012 single, Cheerleader, jumps from number 11 to number seven this week. The single is in its eighth week on the main Billboard singles list, and its 12th week at the top of Billboard’s Digital Reggae Singles chart.

To date, Cheerleader has sold over 641,098 copies in the US and has been certified gold.

Omi (real name Omar Passley) joins an elite list of Jamaicans who have made the Billboard 100. The others are:

* Millie Small (in 1964 with My Boy Lollipop, which reached number two);

* Desmond Dekker and the Aces (in 1969 with Israelites which reached number nine);

* Carl Douglas (with Kung Fu Fighting which hit number one in 1974);

* Inner Circle, number eight in 1993 with Bad Boys;

* Shaggy, with Angel (number one in 2001, It Wasn’t Me (number one in 2000), Boombastic number three in 1995);

* Sean Paul (three number one hits: Baby Boy, featuring Beyoncé in 2003, Get Busy in 2003, and Temperature in 2006). He also hit the top 10 with Gimme the Light (number seven in 2002), When You Gonna (Give it Up to Me) featuring Keyshia Cole (number three in 2006), Break It Off (featuring Rihanna, number nine in 2007) and We Be Burnin (number six in 2005).

Cheerleader has enjoyed global success, topping charts in several other countries, including Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany.

It spent four weeks at number one in the UK, making Omi the Jamaican with the longest streak at number one in that country.