2021 has brought Zedd not one but two members of Spotify’s 1 billion streams club.
Over the years, streams have hardly been scarce for the True Colors album maker, but in 2021, they led him to realize a new career benchmark: his first billion-play productions on the streaming platform. Co-produced with Grey, “The Middle” was Zedd’s first record to break 1 billion streams on Spotify, a feat that has since been duplicated by his 2017 collaboration with Alessia Cara, “Stay.”
“Stay” attracted several awards nominations, ultimately taking home the MTV Video Music Award for Best Dance Video and the iHeartRadio Music Award for Dance Song of the Year in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Of note, the song was also nominated for the 2017 Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.
The cut, which was co-written by frequent Zedd collaborator Sarah Aarons, Linus Wiklund, and Nonnie Bao, was accompanied by a remix package in June of 2017 that collated alternative takes from Petite Biscuit, The Kemist, Jonas Blue, Lophiile, Yasutaka Nakata, and Tritonal.
WOW! 1 BILLION @Spotify “STAY” streams! So happy to share this moment with @alessiacara! A HUGE thank you to @sarah_aarons, @Lotus_IV and @NoonieBao who wrote this song with us, and THANK YOU to everyone who has shown support since day 1 and streamed it! pic.twitter.com/7HJz2Rn4y6
Featured image: Zedd/Twitter
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