Who is Joji, the singer who beats Beyoncé and Drake with his new song? † NOW

Not Beyoncé’s new single or any of the tracks from Drake’s album released last week is currently the most streamed Spotify song in the US. It’s the single Overview of us by Joji. Who is this Japanese artist?

All eyes were on Beyoncé last week when she made her comeback with Break my soul† The song is the first single from the album Renaissance, the successor of lemonade from 2016. Although this song is not without merit on Spotify with 21 million streams in a few days and a place in the list of the most listened to songs of the moment, it must leave Joji well ahead of it.

His single Overview of us appeared on June 10 and has been going like a rocket ever since. The piano ballad is already good for 126 million streams on Spotify. In the United States, the song currently receives over 1.6 million streams per day, more than any song.

In the world list, Joji currently only has Harry Styles and his mega hit As it was tolerate. The Japanese-born artist is also on the rise in the Netherlands. Overview of us is at the time of writing in fifteenth place on the Spotify list with just under 100,000 streams per day.

From comic vlogger to singer

Although this is the first time Joji has achieved such success on the official charts (in Australia and New Zealand it is number 1 and has also reached the top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100), streaming hits on Spotify are not strange. to him. With his two albums Ballad 1 and Nectar it has already reached hundreds of millions of streams, with the song as its highlight Slow dance in the dark with over 850 million games.

The 29-year-old artist, whose full name is George Kusunoki Miller, was born in Osaka, Japan and moved to the United States when he was eighteen. There he began a career as a YouTuber and comedian with the well-known account Filthy Frank. Followers and views on YouTube flow in thanks to the often crude humor of the videos, so Joji doesn’t start his musical adventure completely without followers.

At that time, Joji was already working on the music, but in a completely different way. As Pink Guy, he comes out of satirical hip-hop. He announces that he will stop with Filthy Frank and Pink Guy at the end of 2017, mainly due to health issues. He suffers from a neurological disorder that can cause seizures when stressed.

Relationship troubles on TikTok

Joji changes course and focuses on his musical career from 2018. Where the sound of his first two albums is mainly electronic in nature, Overview of us more acoustic. On the song, he sings about how he found the seemingly perfect partner, but in his head he’s still busy with his ex.

The subject of the song is getting a lot of attention on TikTok. Many young users make videos with the song playing in the background where they question (often jokingly) about their own relationship. “It’s my worst nightmare that my boyfriend could get into this song,” is a frequently heard cry.

Although Joji was criticized for the lyrics (“Why start a new relationship, if you’re obviously not ready for this?”), it doesn’t hurt him, because in part due to trending on TikTok, Beyoncé can’t keep up with her current streaming numbers just yet.