Singles spike – Tracks performed on BET Awards move digitally
BY KEVIN JACKSON Observer writer
Monday, July 08, 2013
It saw performances from Dawn Penn, Beenie Man, Chaka Demus and Pliers, and Elephant Man.
 Beenie Man
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With the exception of Elephant Man, all experienced a spike in sales of songs they performed, on Billboard’s Digital Reggae Singles Chart.
There has been an increase in downloads for Penn’s You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No); Beenie Man’s Who Am I (Zim Zimma) and Girls Dem Sugar; and Chaka Demus and Pliers’ Murder She Wrote.
The tracking week opened June 25 and closed at midnight five days later. Sales for that period will reflect on the Billboard charts for July 13.
Penn first recorded You Don’t Love Me in the 1960s at Studio One for producer Clement ‘Coxson’ Dodd. In 1994, a remixed version reached number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 10 on the Dance Music Club Play chart.
Hours after the BET Awards, the song sold 428 downloads and returned to the Digital Reggae Singles chart at number 60. The previous week, only 140 copies were sold.
Total sales for You Don’t Love Me to date is 48,952.
Murder She Wrote was released in 1993. One year later, it peaked at number 27 in the United Kingdom and number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Since the BET Awards, Murder She Wrote has jumped from number 40 to number 21 on the Digital Reggae Singles chart, selling 1,234 downloads compared to 617 the previous week. The song’s total sales stands at 264,339 copies.
First released in 1997, Girls Dem Sugar was remixed with Beenie Man and singer Mya in 2000. That version went number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100 and 16 on the R&B Hip Hop table.
On the latest Digital Reggae chart, Girls Dem Sugar re-enters at number 66 with 408 copies. The previous week, it moved 219 copies with total digital sales of 103,528.
Who Am I (Zim Zimma), produced by Jeremy Harding in 1997, was featured on Beenie Man’s Many Moods of Moses album which sold over 250,000 copies.
The single is back in the Digital chart at number 74 with 367 copies. The week before it moved 129 downloads, for mass figures of 58,938.
Released in the US in 1998, Who Am I went number 40 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and number 15 on the R&B Hip Hop chart.
