Major Lazer Picks Up Diamond Certification For ‘Lean On’

Jamaican-American DJ trio Major Lazer picked up several new Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certifications over the last week, including a Diamond certification for their 2015 single Lean On with French record producer DJ Snake and featuring Danish pop star MØ.

Released as the lead single on their Peace Is the Mission album, Lean On received the certification on September 17, 2021, after having sold over 10 million units in the United States.

As one-third of Major Lazer, Walshy Fire has expressed his elation about the milestone. “Feels amazing to see a song grow into something that has and will forever continue to impact people’s lives in such a positive way,” he told DancehallMag. “So proud of this.”

Lead member and record producer Diplo originally wanted Rihanna or Nicki Minaj on Lean On, but both superstars rejected the track.  During a 2015 interview with Time Magazine, Diplo said this was a “blessing in disguise” as “MØ sounds better than anybody was going to sound on that record.”

With MØ’s vocals, the track drew critical and commercial success upon release and subsequently peaked at No. 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100.  In the United Kingdom, it peaked at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart and is currently BPI certified 3x Platinum for sales of over 1.8 million units.  According to IFPI, Lean On was the 5th best-selling song of 2015 worldwide, and one of the best-selling singles of all time with global sales of 13.1 million units.

The accompanying music video, which was filmed in ND Studios, Karjat, Kaul Heritage City, in Vasai, Maharashtra, India, and in the Golden Hall at Stockholm City Hall, currently has over 3 billion views on YouTube.

Major Lazer’s third current member, Ape Drums, joined the trio after Jillionaire left in 2019.

In addition to hitting the Diamond certified threshold for Lean On last week, Major Lazer was also awarded three other certificates from the RIAA.

On September 15, they received a 2x Platinum certification for the Light It Up Remix, which was released in 2015 with Jamaican singer Nyla and Ghanaian-English afrobeats recording artist Fuse ODG, having sold 2 million units.

Also on September 15, the DJ trio received a Gold certification for the single Que Calor featuring Colombian rapper J Balvin and Dominican recording artist El Alfa that released in 2019, having sold over 500,000 units.

Then, they copped another Gold certification on September 22 for their 2017 single Know No Better featuring American rappers Travis Scott and Quavo, and Cuban-born American singer Camila Cabello.