The 2008 hit “Miss Independent,” from Ne-Yo’s album Year of the Gentleman, has reached one billion streams, joining the Spotify Billions Club.
Now an R&B classic, “Miss Independent” steadily built momentum after its release in November 2008 to reach the top ten. After debuting at number 98 on the Billboard Hot 100, the song made weekly jumps before hitting number nine in week eight, joining his previous single “Closer” in reaching the top ten. The song ultimately peaked at number seven in December 2008.
“Miss Independent” would go on to win Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song at the 2009 Grammy Awards. That same year, the single was certified platinum by the RIAA.
The track’s music video featured a number of celebrity cameos, including actors Gabrielle Union and Lauren London and musicians Keri Hilson and Trey Songz. In the video, Ne-Yo plays an employee with a thing for his boss (Union), who’s more interested in her job than him. She does, of course, return his flirtations in the end.
Ne-Yo’s next move is a 2026 world tour with Akon, kicking off on April 24th at 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland. From Ireland, the two artists will travel throughout the U.K. and Europe before heading to North America on June 17th. There, they’ll perform in major cities like Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. The tour will wrap up on Friday, August 21st at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, CA.
The R&B singer is working on a country-inspired album for his next release. “I’m doing a project that’s inspired by all the things I love about country music,” he told IHeartRadio. He’s reluctant to call the project a ‘country album,’ however. “I honestly feel like it would be disrespectful for me to say I’m doing a country album when I know for a fact that there are artists that eat, sleep, live, and breathe country music 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
