CKay, Nigerian afrobeats artiste, has earned RIAA gold certification for his 2019 chart topping single “Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah)”.
On Monday (Jan. 10), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), revealed that the Chocolate City/Warner Music – South Africa signed artiste’s single has sold over 500,000 units in the United States of America.
This new score adds to the numerous certifications it has received since its debut. The song had already been certified gold in Australia and Austria for selling 35,000 and 15,000 respectively. It is certified platinum in Italy and New Zealand for selling 70,000 and 30,000 units, respectively, and twice platinum in Portugal for selling 20,000 units. In Spain and the UK, the song is certified gold for selling 20,000 and 400,000 copies, respectively.
In 2021 the song charted across Europe, Australia, Latin America, and New Zealand, reaching number one in India, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland, and gained popularity across TikTok. It also peaked at number 3 on the UK Singles Chart and reached number one on the UK Indie Singles Chart. It also reached No. 29 on the US Billboard Hot 100, it peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Global 200 and appeared on the Canadian Hot 100.
A music video for “Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah)” was released on 14 February 2020, it was directed by Naya visuals and has since surpassed 154 million views on YouTube. A video for the North African remix featuring ElGrande Toto was released on November 4, 2021. It was shot in Lagos and was directed by TG Omori, it surpassed 34 million views after a month of release on YouTube.
A performance video for the acoustic version was also released in 2020 and has since garnered 132 million views on YouTube.
CKay’s Spotify followers increased to over 31 million following the rising popularity of the song, it also has been subject to five remixes. Various covers performed around the world with different instruments and sung in a variety of languages most notably Hindi, French and Spanish have also been uploaded on social media platform attracting their own popularity, the song trended across Tiktok and in the middle east and Asia, it also soundtracked over three million Tiktok videos and was subject to many local variants.
Featured image credits/Courtesy of Ken Vii/Pause Magazine via CKay/Instagram
