Kavinsky’s ‘Nightcall’ breaks record for most Shazamed song in a single day ever after Paris Olympics closing ceremony 

13 August, 2024

Kavinsky performs during the closing ceremony during the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

After being played at the Paris Olympics closing ceremony, Kavinsky‘s ‘Nightcall’ has broken the record to become the most Shazamed song ever in a single day.

The 2010 song was played by the French electro-pop pioneer during the closing ceremony at the Stade de France on Sunday (August 11), when he performed alongside Phoenix, Air and Vampire Weekend‘s Ezra Koenig.

French electronic icons Phoenix and Air were both heavily rumoured to be making an appearance last week, and came together to perform a medley of songs, surrounded by Olympic medallists who had competed at the event since the opening ceremony on July 26.

Among the songs featured was Kavinsky’s hit ‘Nightcall’, which was shared in 2010 but gained huge popularity after being featured in the movie Drive starring Ryan Gosling. CSS singer Lovefoxxx sang on the original version.

The track then went on to gain more notoriety in the music world, having been covered by London Grammar in 2013, sampled by The Weeknd – with the two later joining forces for the song ‘Odd Luck’ – and played as the track Avenged Sevenfold enter the stage to during their most recent tour dates.

Now, it has been confirmed that its feature at the 2024 Olympics has led to it breaking the record as the song to be Shazamed the most times in a single day.

The song is currently sitting tight at the top of the Top 200 Global chart on Shazam and, at time of writing, has 6,921,000 Shazams on the app. The most Shazamed song of all time remains as Tones And I’s 2019 viral track ‘Dance Monkey’.

Billie Eilish, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Snoop Dogg also performed at the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics over the weekend and, like Kavinsky, have seen their songs boom across the app.

Phoenix’s ‘Lisztomania’ – which they played first during the set – is currently sat at Number Two on the Shazam global chart, while Eilish’s ‘Birds Of A Feather’ is in third place. Phoenix also have songs in fifth, sixth and 10th position too, with ‘If I Ever Feel Better’, ‘1901’, and ‘Tonight (feat. Ezra Koenig)’ respectively.

Air have also seen their song ‘Playground Love (feat. Gordon Tracks)’ enter the Shazam Top 10 for this week, placing in at Number Eight.

While Air, Phoenix, Kavinsky and Koenig performed in France, Eilish, RHCP and Snoop Dogg all performed during the handing over of the Olympic torch to Los Angeles which was kicked off by H.E.R. performing the Mission: Impossible theme as Tom Cruise rappelled into the Stade de France in Paris.

A pre-recorded segment then saw Cruise land in the Hollywood Hills as part of the handover to the Los Angeles games, which are taking place in 2028. He then handed the flag to Team USA athletes who eventually ended up at Venice Beach, where the Chili Peppers kicked off the American portion of the closing ceremony with ‘Can’t Stop’.

You can view the full segment on the BBC iPlayer here.

Back in 2022, Kavinsky spoke to NME about the huge success of ‘Nightcall’, and opened up about what to expect from his second album, ‘Reborn’. He also confirmed news that a new collaboration with The Weeknd was on the way.

“After the sudden success of ‘Nightcall’, I didn’t really want to record again at that moment. I sensed some pressure; I was scared. I was scared to imagine what my music was going to be after this success,” he said. “I took two steps back and started to imagine what I was going to record after that, at my own pace. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next.”

“It allowed me to breathe some fresh air; it allowed me to think and it allowed people to forget about me for a little bit so that when I felt ready to return, I could perhaps try new things.”

The post Kavinsky’s ‘Nightcall’ breaks record for most Shazamed song in a single day ever after Paris Olympics closing ceremony  appeared first on NME.