GYPTIAN has usurped deejays Vybz Kartel, Shaggy and Sean Paul to become the most popular dancehall artiste in North America and third popular globally based on online searches, amidst the prerelease of his charting album.

He is more popular than rivals in the US and Canada (the world’s largest music market) according to data from search engine Google analysed by the Observer. Over the last 30 days, every 100 searches for Gyptian saw a corresponding 67 for Shaggy and five for Sean Paul, zero for Kartel in the US.

Globally, however, Gyptian has half the online popularity of Sean Paul and Shaggy who are still the most popular deejays. That is not bad for Gyptian, as last June he did not even register on Google Trends. Gyptian’s global rise to third place occurred in May and June when he beat Kartel and Matisyahu respectively. It indicates that more persons worldwide are searching for news and music from Gyptian than ever.

His hit single Hold Yuh is currently topping five territories including US, UK, France, Canada and Belgium based on iTunes Reggae Songs chart up to Saturday. His single is also charting at number four on Billboard’s Heatseeker’s singles chart. Whilst his new album on VP Records debuted at number two on Billboard’s Reggae Albums chart this week (despite his album’s official release in August).

Not since 2003 has a localbased reggae artiste had that level of chart success noted Billboard about Gyptian. That chart success has fuelled his online popularity which is reflected in the jump in his search traffic.

Specifically, during the last 30 days, every 100 global searches for Gyptian saw a corresponding 92 searches for Kartel and 80 searches for Matisyahu. Gyptian is also currently tied with Damian Marley who recently released an album with rap legend Nas.

The single Hold Yuh has resurrected his career from his debut hit Serious Times some five years ago. Since then he has racked up a handful of minor hits including Mama Don’t Cry, I Can Feel Your Pain and Beautiful Lady. Hold Yuh however, is his first global hit which has transcended the Jamaican Diaspora into the mainstream music markets. In fact, he is one of the few Jamaican dancehall artistes who still holds a valid US visa, which has allowed him to support his chart success with a relatively big US tour which started in July.

Gyptian was raised in rural St Andrew by his Christian mother and Rastafarian father. He often wrapped shirts around his head in the style of an Egyptian pharaoh, which inspired his moniker. Gyptian honed his talent by singing at his mother’s Sunday morning church services and at the Saturday night dances promoted by his father who owned the Sugar Stone sound system.

Google Trends analyses a portion of Google web searches to compute the quantity of searches for terms relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. Online search volume has significance as it reflects, in part, the fluctuations in online popularity of an artiste. The most popular Jamaican entertainers have the most online traffic; these are Bob Marley, Sean Paul and Shaggy.