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As someone who's generally not very good with numbers, I still know that one billion is a very, very large number. Let me write it out for you with all its zeros: 1,000,000,000. See? That's a lot of zeros.
With this in mind, I think you and I can both agree that it would be a monumental achievement to reach one billion views on YouTube. Having a few million followers on Instagram is something, sure, but having billions of people watch a video? Pwoah.
Someone grappling with this statistic right now is English singer and songwriter Dua Lipa. At age 22, she's the youngest female artist to hit one billion views on YouTube with her song New Rules. She began her musical career at 14-years-old through YouTube itself, by covering songs by other artists. Only a year later she was signed with Warner Music Group.
And now, the pop singer has made YouTube history with her billion view record. New Rules was released in July last year, and little more than 7 months later it's tipped over the one billion view count. It features Dua Lipa and her colourful girl gang dancing and singing to the tune around a hotel room where they brush each other's hair and pose with flamingoes poolside.
New Rules is the sixth single on Dua Lipa's self-titled debut album, which she's touring around the world right now. The singer has been in Canada and heads to Abu Dabi next week, before doing a circuit around New Zealand and Australia.
She took to Instagram to share the exciting news, posting an old baby pic with a telephone wedged under her adorably squidgy cheeks. "I picked up the phone and found out I am the youngest female artist to hit 1 BILLION views on a music video #newrules," she wrote in the caption, ending it with an excitable: "WHAAAAA!!!".
There were previously only 99 videos with a billion views to their name, and New Rules has become lucky number 100. Despacito still reigns number one on the most-viewed list, and Gangnam Style is still hanging in there at number 4. Various other female solo artists have had their music videos reach the billion view mark, including Taylor Swift's Shake It Off, Roar from Katy Perry and Adele's Hello.
But Dua Lipa is the youngest female star to grace the list, and that's just another accomplishment the 22-year-old can be proud of.
She made history again by receiving the most nominations in a single year for a female solo artist at the BRIT Awards, and is sure to take home a few of them. She's been nominated for British Solo Female Artist, British Artist Video of the Year, British Breakthrough Act, British Single and Mastercard British Album of the Year, and the awards are set to take place in London on February 21. It was also announced that Dua Lipa was the most streamed female artist in the UK on Spotify last year too.
Looks like there's no stopping her now. Keep killing it girl!