Artist:OMI
Song:Cheerleader
Album:Me 4 U
The 2015 single Cheerleader was a worldwide smash hit for Jamaican singer Omar "OMI" Pasley. It remains to be seen if he can top it but I think it was a fluke. He was born Sept. 3, 1986 in Clarendon, Jamaica. He moved to Kingston after Clifton "Specialist" Dillon discovered him. He also discovered Shabba Ranks. Pasley first wrote and recorded Cheerleader in 2012 with legendary producers Sly & Robbie and sax player Dean Fraser. It was a hit in Jamaica. Ultra Music president Patrick Moxey heard Cheerleader while he was vacationing in Montreal. He was interested in the song but he thought it would need a remix to appeal to a wider audience. With interest from other producers, Moxey signed Pasley to Ultra. The label has Sony distribution. He sent the record to a couple of DJs and German DJ Felix Jaehn got the job. Jaehn liked the vocals but he sped them up and added a house beat. He replaced Fraser's sax with a sample of a trumpet. But I think adding the beat was a big factor. The remix of Cheerleader was released in May 2014. It took a year for the record to get really big. They also shot a new music video. At first the record was a hit in Europe. And then Sony really started to push it by naming it their Song of the Month in Jan. 2015. They made a deal with Simon Cowell's Syco label to promote it in England. And then it spread to the US. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 in July. Spotify was also a big factor in the early success of the record. As of 2019, Cheerleader has attracted 910M plays on Spotify. You can get the remix on Pasley's 2015 album Me 4 U which is available as a budget CD. Subsequent singles haven't charted and there has yet to be a second album. I can't say how Pasley will do in the future. But as I said, I think Cheerleader is a fluke. Here's the video for Cheerleader by OMI.
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