JAMAICAN SINGER OMI TOPS THE BRITISH NATIONAL CHART WITH “CHEERLEADER!”

 Omi—

CHEERLEADER, the hit single from singer Omi, is number one on the British pop chart.

The Felix Jaehn remix of the song (released late last year) removed See You Again by American rapper Wiz Khalifa and singer Charlie Puth from the top spot.

Cheerleader is certified gold in the United Kingdom for over 400,000 copies sold to date. Over the past week, it sold over 113,000 copies in that country.

Omi has been on a musical high with Cheerleader, which has topped charts in Australia, Austria, Germany, France, Ireland, The Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.

He joins a growing list of Jamaican acts to reach number one on the British pop chart. The first was Israelites by Desmond Dekker and the Aces, which spent one week in that position in 1969.

Other chart-toppers include Double Barrel (by Dave and Ansel Collins in May 1971; Carl Douglas with Kung Fu Fighting in 1974; Ken Boothe with Everything I Own in 1974; Althea and Donna in 1978 with Uptown Top Ranking; Boney M a group with two Jamaican members, Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett which hit number one in 1978 with Rivers of Babylon and Mary’s Boy Child; Boris Gardiner in 1986 with I Want to Wake Up With You); Shaggy, who topped the chart multiple times beginning in 1993 with Oh Carolina which spent two weeks on top); and Chaka Demus and Pliers and Jack Radics, who hit the mark in January 1994 with a remake of Twist and Shout.

Desmond Dekker & The Aces, the first Jamaican act to top the British Pop Chart!

The last Jamaican to make number one in the UK was Sean Paul. He teamed with girl group The Saturdays on 2013’s What About Us.

While Omi continues to make waves across Europe, Cheerleader has just begun to warm up in the United States. The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 95 last week.

On Tuesday, the Clarendon-born artist (given name Omar Samuel Pasley) will head to the UK to promote the single, which is being distributed and marketed by music mogul Simon Cowell’s Syco Music label, a subsidiary of Columbia Records.