Major Lazer’s Powerful featuring Ellie Goulding and Tarrus Riley reaches the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.

Article by Empress K for Reggae Reflection 

We all remember that first time when and where we heard a particular song on the radio.  I had been traveling most of September to cover a variety of music festivals coast to coast, so it was a great welcome home last week when I finally made it back to Boston’s Logan International Airport, jumped in my car to head home and turned on the radio.  A few familiar notes on Boston’s 103.3 Amp Fm radio caught my attention.  Sure enough it indeed was a familiar song – it was the song Powerful, a song I recognized by Major Lazer featuring Ellie Goulding and Reggae singer, Tarrus Riley.   Powerful just debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart last week at number 95.  This week, it’s still moving up the charts a notch to number 94.   And it had a boost on Billboard’s Hot Dance / Electronic chart, moving up to number 6.   Powerful is a single from Major Lazer’s latest album, Peace Is The Mission released earlier this summer and now just released in September on a new EP featuring the original song and 5 new remixes.  

Just last year Tarrus Riley’s 2014 independent album, Love Situation topped the Billboard Reggae Chart upon its release.   Tarrus Riley and the Blak Soil band just wrapped up a month long run on the Catch a Fire Tour also featuring Morgan Heritage, Stephen Marley and Damian Marley. It was certainly “Powerful” to hear Tarrus Riley perform the song live during the Catch a Fire shows as well as to now hear it play on mainstream radio.  

A couple other Caribbean artists are also currently making their mark on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.  Omi hailing from Jamaica had the number one Billboard chart-topping song CheerLeader earlier this summer which has now slipped out of the top 10 to number 11.    US Virgin Island’s duo R. City (formerly Rock City) are now in the  top 10 Billboard Hot 100 Chart with their new release  Locked Away featuring Maroon 5’s Adam Levine. Locked away is currently at number 6 on the chart. 

Chart Information week of 10/17/15  –  Billboard.com