Tones And I enters the history books once more, as the Australian artist’s monster hit “Dance Monkey” ticks past 3 billion streams on Spotify.
With that feat, Tones (real name: Toni Watson) becomes the first female artist to achieve that streaming milestone.
Since its commercial launch in 2008, Spotify has entered just eight songs into the three billion streams club; with the exception of “Dance Monkey,” all of them are recorded by male artists from North America or the United Kingdom.
At the top of the tree is The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” (4.092 billion streams), ahead of Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” (3.796 billion) and Lewis Capaldi’s “Someone You Loved” (3.239 billion), respectively.
Since “Dance Monkey” dropped in May 2019, nothing has been quite the same. The single logged 24 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the ARIA Chart, an all-time record, and spent 11 weeks at No. 1 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, a record for a solo female artist.
Konstantin Kersting produced and mixed the song, which hit No. 1 in more than 30 countries around the world.
Tones, a one-time busker, also nailed a Billboard Hot 100 hit with “Dance Monkey.” The second single from her debut EP The Kids Are Coming, “Dance Monkey” swung to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, earned the artist her first top 10 hit on Billboard‘s Pop Airplay, Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and Dance/Mix Show Airplay charts, and Tones claimed top spot on the Hot 100 Songwriters Chart.
Apple, owner of music recognition app Shazam, has named “Dance Monkey” as the most-Shazamed song of all time, with users of the app identifying the track more than 44.4 million times. And in April 2023, the official music video for “Dance Monkey” clocked two billion views on YouTube.
Global streams across Tones’ catalog, which includes 2021’s “Fly Away,” which peaked at No. 11 in the U.K.
Tones is currently opening for Pink’s Summer Carnival stadium tour of Australia which, too, should bust records. When it completes its final show in late March, the trek, produced by Live Nation, is expected to pass 900,000 ticket sales for Australia and New Zealand, a box-office record for a solo female artist.
Earlier in the month, Tones shared the new single “Dreaming,” co-written with Sam Nelson of X Ambassadors and co-produced alongside Nelson and Randy Belculfine.
“Dreaming” will appear on her sophomore album, due out later this year and the followup to 2021’s Welcome to the Madhouse, which debuted at No. 1 on the ARIA Chart.
