Lil Nas X continues to make his mark in music history. His record-breaking hit, “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, has now become the fastest song to be certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America, Billboard reported.
The country trap song reached sales, including equivalent streaming sales, of 10 million units to qualify for the diamond certification, the publication added.
It’s now only the 32nd song, in over 60 years of RIAA’s Gold and Platinum program history, to reach diamond status, Liz Kennedy, a spokesperson for the organization tweeted. “Old Town Road” hit the unique milestone in just six months after its April release, the official Twitter account for the RIAA tweeted.
Lil Nas X released his original version of “Old Town Road” in December 2018.
The song, which went viral after gaining traction on an app called TikTok, later sparked wide conversations about racism in the country music world after it was removed from Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in March.
The publication claimed the song did not “embrace enough elements of today’s country music,” and later denied that the decision had anything to do with race amid backlash.
Cyrus publicly threw his support behind Lil Nas X following the controversy surrounding the removal of “Old Town Road” from Billboard’s country chart. The two then collaborated to release the popular remix of the song with the veteran country music star’s vocals in April.
In July, “Old Town Road” broke the record for having the longest-running streak at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
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