Major Lazer song becomes Spotify’s most streamed track

On the eve of their Australian tour this month, Major Lazer’s Lean On has become Spotify’s most streamed song of all time. It’s notched up an awesome 526 million plays worldwide since its release in March, dethroning Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran.

The infectious dancehall track, featuring French producer DJ Snake and Danish singer MØ, was a #1 in Australia as well as France and Switzerland. It reached #2 in Britain and peaked at #4 in the US.

Major Lazer is made up of DJ Diplo and Switch, who met after working with M.I.A and formed a group that covered EDM, dancehall and reggae.

The pair wrote the song with MØ from an instrumental that Jr Blender had created in a studio in Trinidad.

Diplo explained in a Facebook posting, “It was a strong hook. Very big to me but the production was lacking an attitude we needed. A year later I remixed the song at a completely different tempo and asked DJ Snake for a signature post chorus. After he did his thing me, MØ and Blender rewrote the song at the new tempo in Las Vegas and made something very unique that became our album’s lead off single.”

Lean On was recorded by Major Lazer after Rihanna and Nicki Minaj turned it down. It was the lead-off single from their Peace Is The Mission album.

Spotify promoted it as its designated “song of the summer”.