‘The Middle’ becomes Zedd’s first song to surpass 1 billion Spotify streams
by: Rachel Narozniak
Jan 21, 2021
Why don’t you just meet Zedd in the…1 billion club?
Over the years, streams have hardly been scarce for Zedd, but on January 21, they led the German-Russian producer to realize a new career benchmark: his first billion-play production. Coproduced with Grey, “The Middle” has officially broken 1 billion Spotify streams, an accolade that only further confirms the single’s commercial success.
Carrying Maren Morris‘ vocal signature, “The Middle,” released via Interscope Records on January 23, 2018, received nods for “Record of the Year,” “Song of the Year,” and “Best Pop Duo/Group Performance” at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, held on February 10, 2019. Of note, “The Middle” was also up for several honors at the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards, where it notably secured the “Song of the Year” and “Dance Song of the Year” titles. Outside of the awards arena, “The Middle” also set a new record for the most weeks spent at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, where it sat at pole position for 28 weeks at the time of the announcement (August 14, 2018).
In a “the making of” video published in April of 2018, Zedd recalled the complexity of crafting “The Middle.” “There were months where we almost gave up because we couldn’t a vocalist,” Zedd revealed.
14 demo vocalists later, which included the likes of Bebe Rexha and Demi Lovato, “The Middle” found its vocal match in Maren Morris. “I had never heard her music until I heard her demo,” Zedd noted. “I was like who’s Maren Morris? She sounds really good.” Evidently, listeners can attest to that.
Dancing Astronaut congratulates Zedd on his milestone achievement.
Featured image: Zedd/Instagram
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