Childish Gambino—aka Grammy, Emmy and Golden Globe winner Donald Glover—made quite a splash with the early May release of an instantly iconic single and music video, “This Is America.” In news that will surprise no one who has used the internet in recent weeks, the song has already been certified platinum by the RIAA, with over 1.3 million track equivalents sold in the U.S. (and over 2.6 million worldwide), over 216 million video streams and over 147 million track streams in the three weeks since its release.
“This Is America” has notched an insane slew of #1’s on its path to platinum status, debuting at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, per Nielsen SoundScan, and holding that top spot for two consecutive weeks. The track also debuted on both Spotify’s Global and U.S. charts, and hit #1 on iTunes in 45 markets, with a top five spot in 63 markets. Seriously, this song has topped charts we didn’t even know existed, holding at #1 on the Overall Streaming Chart (for three weeks in a row), the Song Consumption Chart (for two weeks in a row), the Digital Songs Chart (for two weeks in a row) and the Audio On-Demand Chart (for two weeks in a row). People like it.
Just as indelible (and staggeringly successful) is the Hiro Murai-helmed video for “This Is America,” which has been sitting comfortably atop YouTube’s U.S. Top Music Videos and U.S. Top Songs charts since its release. The video chalked up 85.3 million views in its first week alone, the biggest debut week of any video this year, and took the top spot on the YouTube Songs chart in 11 countries, including the U.S., U.K. and Australia, among others. It was the fifth-fastest video to tally 100 million views in YouTube history, as well, hitting that mark in just nine days.
Clearly, ears everywhere are primed for Childish Gambino’s final album, due out sometime this year via Wolf + Rothstein/RCA Records. “This Is America” isn’t even the album’s first official single, either—we can’t wait to see what Glover’s whippin’ up for his last hurrah.
“This Is America” is the artist’s fourth single to go platinum, following his stellar 2016 slow jam “Redbone” (which went 4x platinum), off his acclaimed Awaken, My Love!, along with “3005” and “Heartbeat,” from his 2013 LP Because the Internet and 2011 debut Camp, respectively. But none of those songs rocketed to platinum status anywhere near as quickly as “This Is America,” signaling a serious shift in Glover’s reach and resonance as a musician.
Watch the “This Is America” video below, whether you’re already obsessed or still curious what all the fuss is about, or stream the track itself here. You’ll find a 2011 Childish Gambino performance from the Paste archives further down.