Anna Daniels
When Post Malone and Swae Lee released “Sunflower” into the world on October 18, 2018 — a little less than two months ahead of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse‘s theatrical debut on December 14, 2018 — the Head of Music, Creative Affairs Worldwide for Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Motion Picture Group, Spring Aspers, described the collaboration as a song “that’s both heroic and emotional, which is exactly what a Spider-Man story needs” (via Variety). He also noted that the “anthemic, but also heartfelt” tune was the “perfect soundtrack for Miles to discover the Spider-Man inside himself.” Once audiences got a listen of “Sunflower” for themselves, they felt much the same.
The track earned raves from critics — like Spin‘s Israel Daramola, who described “Sunflower” as both a “glitchy, soulful record” and a “short and sweet, hazy little pop song” — and rocketed to the top 10 bracket of the Billboard Hot 100 upon its debut. By January 2019, “Sunflower” had topped the charts, gotten stuck in everyone’s brains, and racked up hundreds of millions of views on its accompanying lyric video (which currently touts over 1 billion total views as of this writing). In November of that year, the track earned not one but two Grammy Awards nominations: one for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and another for Record of the Year. Though “Sunflower” didn’t spin either of those nods into wins, losing out to Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus (for “Old Town Road”) in the first category and to Billie Eilish (for “Bad Guy”) in the second, the song did end up selling over 13 million units in 2019 — indeed going platinum more than ten times over, just as Rothman said.
A catchy tune that music fans, movie critics, industry elites, and comic book lovers all enjoy? Nothing better could have opened up one of the very best movies of 2018.
Written by: Looper
