Empire of Sun's “Walking on a Dream” enters APRA AMCOS' The 1,000,000,000 List, an accolade recognizing one billion streams across all platforms.
Released as the project's debut single in 2008, the track reached the top 10 (peaking at No. 10) on the ARIA Singles Chart and won Single of the Year at the 2009 ARIA Music Awards, one of their four wins on the night.
The following year, at the 2010 APRA Music Awards, the song — written by Nick Littlemore, Luke Steele and Jono Sloan — was awarded dance act of the year and the trio jointly won the breakthrough songwriter award.
Littlemore and Sloan were on hand for a presentation at APRA AMCOS headquarters in Sydney. The song's publishers are Universal Music Publishing for Littlemore, Sony Music Publishing for Steele and Kobalt Music Publishing for Sloan, previously published by BMG.
“It's an evergreen record,” says Littlemore. “It's new for every generation. It's the hope as a songwriter or creator in any sense that you can constantly reach out to kids and give them something to play.”
In the US, the song got a second life when it was synced to a Honda Civic commercial in 2016, taking it to No. 65 on the Billboard Hot 100 and landing it at No. 1 on Billboard's Dance Club Songs, their second leader on the tally after 2013's 'Alive'.
Later in 2022, the song culminated in a five-year global campaign for Western Australian tourism and was nominated last year in the new ARIA Awards category for Best Use of an Australian Recording in Advertising.
Currently, according to APRA AMCOS, “Walking on a Dream” is certified 10 times platinum in Australia and platinum in the US and UK
“It's an honor to recognize 'Walking on a Dream', a song that retains its freshness and eerie sound no matter what year it is or where you are in the world,” comments Dean Ormston, CEO of APRA AMCOS.
The 1,000,000,000 List recognizes APRA AMCOS songwriter members and their publishers and takes into account stream numbers from major services Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.
It is said to be the first award of its kind to celebrate a songwriter's streaming achievement and is the inspiration for the BPI's BRIT Billion Award, introduced by the UK trade association in 2023.
Previous APRA AMCOS Billions Award recipients include Tame Impala's Kevin Parker (for “The Less I Know The Better”), Flume (“Never Be Like You”), Troye Sivan and Alex Hope (“Youth”) , Tones And I (“Dance Monkey”), 5 Seconds of Summer (“Youngblood”) and SHOUSE (“Love Tonight”).
See the full list here.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/empire-of-the-sun-walking-on-a-dream-billions-award-1235581608/
