Yuna becomes first Malaysian artist to surpass one billion Spotify streams
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian international singer Yuna has created another major milestone after becoming the first artist from Malaysia to achieve more than one billion streams on Spotify across all her musical releases and collaborations.
The 40-year-old singer admitted she was initially shocked after learning about the achievement through fans on social media before her team later confirmed the numbers.
According to Yuna, chasing streaming figures and statistics was never part of her main career ambitions throughout her journey in the music industry.
“I first found out when fans started congratulating me online. At first I thought they had made a mistake, but after checking properly, it turned out to be true.
“I never created music just to chase numbers. I simply wanted to make honest music with friends and create songs that I personally enjoy. So this achievement feels very meaningful to me,” she said.
Yuna said the accomplishment also proves that independent Malaysian artists are capable of reaching global audiences without relying entirely on mainstream label systems.
At the same time, the Crush singer also shared her concerns regarding the growing influence of artificial intelligence in the music industry.
She believes AI-generated music still lacks genuine emotion and real-life human experiences that give songs their emotional impact.
“For me, the human touch in music is extremely important. Feelings and life experiences are what make songs feel sincere and relatable.
“Sometimes AI-generated lyrics sound overly dramatic and unnatural, unlike how real people actually communicate,” she said.
Yuna revealed that she had experimented with several AI music tools while living in the United States but found the results lacking authenticity and soul.
She also expressed concern over the environmental impact linked to AI data centres and their heavy energy consumption.
In another development, Yuna recently collaborated on Aizat Amdan’s latest single Ajar Aku alongside Malaysian band Sekumpulan Orang Gila (SOG).
She said she became interested in joining the project after hearing an early demo that used an AI-generated female voice as a temporary placeholder.
Apart from contributing vocals, Yuna also handled the art direction for the music video, which was directed by her husband, Adam Sinclair.
According to her, one of the key things she encouraged Aizat to do was to fully trust the strength of his own music instead of relying too heavily on technology.
“If you want to create something great, you have to give it your full effort. Don’t just settle for doing things halfway or depending too much on AI,” she said.
The single Ajar Aku is now available on all major digital streaming platforms.
-wilayah.com.my
