Dancehall superstar Sean Paul is concluding the U.S. leg of his “Greatest Tour” with sold-out arenas, showcasing the enduring popularity of his genre.
“Our shows have amazing energy,” Paul told The Hollywood Reporter. “It proves to me that no matter what nobody tells me about Dancehall not being accepted in the States anymore, I’m selling out arenas and I’m still doing it and people still love it. We helped to spawn different genres of music. They got reggaeton, they got Afrobeats, but the real players in the game know how much we have influenced them.”
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Paul expressed pride in Dancehall’s impact, stating, “I have to state the claim of Dancehall being as strong and as powerful as it is in the international market today. There’s still a lot of people using or utilizing that infectious beat that we have, and I’m proud of it.”
Despite his long career, Paul remains energetic on stage. “A lot of people can look at me as an elderly statesman in the game, but I’m still performing like a young buck,” he continued.
Sean Paul has had 19 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart since 2003, including “Baby Boy,” his collaboration with Beyoncé, which topped the chart for nine weeks. Reflecting on the significance of the song, Paul fondly recalled a serendipitous moment while writing his verse.
“She opened on a show here in Jamaica with [Destiny’s Child]. They only had one song and I was on that same show, so that’s where we all met. And knowing that she called me back a couple of years later for her first other project was awesome. I was writing my part of the song in the back of my house underneath a mango tree. And while I’m writing my verse, a mango falls out the tree and falls straight through the window [of my car] into my lap. And I was like, ‘That must mean that this song is a sweet song,’” Paul said.
