It’s worth noting that Post Malone has already reached multiple impressive milestones in his career. Earlier this year, he became the artist with the most RIAA-certified singles ever, with 17. Post Malone’s fifth studio album, “Austin,” debuted at #2 in the summer of 2023, which was also his fifth album to debut in the top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Sunflower” is the fourth highest-selling single of the 2010s. Weirdly, the song, as a single, only ever charted as high as #20 on the Billboard charts. Post Malone has been nominated for 10 Grammys, with two of those nominations being for “Sunflower.”
Swae Lee was nominated for Grammys for writing Beyoncé’s “Formation,” and for writing Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode.” He is also a respected solo artist in his own right, having released “Swaecation” in 2018.
The “Sunflower” music video was uploaded to YouTube five years ago and has accrued over 2.3 billion (with a B) views.
The song is weirdly downbeat for a superhero movie, but it certainly taps into the emotional, echoey longing that suffuses many of the biggest pop hits of the ’10s. “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” isn’t a film about longing or love, but “Sunflower” punctuated Miles Morales’ taste. In the film, Miles listened to it on his headphones while working on his artwork in his bedroom. Comedically, Miles didn’t quite know the lyrics, but was keen to hit Post Malone’s high notes. The music then bled into his ordinary life as he prepared to go to school. The song then fades into “Familia” by Anuel AA.
“Spider-Verse” was a huge hit, and now — like so many films in the 1990s — the soundtrack has become even larger. Marvel, although contracting, isn’t quite done with the record books.