Kavinsky’s “Nightcall” Breaks Shazam Record, Billie Eilish Says It’s Been Her Most Played Song For Years
![](https://static.stereogum.com/uploads/2024/08/Kavinsky-Nightcall-1723818568.jpg)
The “Nightcall” renaissance is upon us. The French dance producer Kavinsky co-wrote and co-produced that evocative, neon-streaked synthpop jam with Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, and CSS singer Lovefoxxx sang on it. Kavinsky released the single in 2010, and it achieved generational-totem status a year later, when director Nicolas Winding Refn used the track to soundtrack the opening sequence of his film Drive. Now, the song is surging back into the zeigeist.
At last week’s Olympic closing ceremony in Paris, Phoenix brought out Kavinsky and the Belgian singer Angèle, performed “Nightcall.” Billboard reports that there’s been a surge in “Nightcall” streams since that performance, and Shazam claims that “Nightcall” broke the app’s own records. Apparently, no song has ever been that widely Shazamed in a single day.
“Night Call” by @Kavinsky now holds the record for highest Shazam count in a single day, following the #olympicsclosingceremony @angele_vl🥇🎶https://t.co/Q4r4MtT3aN
— Shazam (@Shazam) August 13, 2024
Last night, Steven Colbert’s Late Show aired an interview with Billie Eilish, another artist who performed at the Olympic closing ceremony. In a segment that was taped back in May, Eilish took the Colbert Questionert. When asked to pick one song to hear for the rest of her life, she picked “Nightcall” without hesitation: “It’s been my top-played song for the last three years.”
It’s that time. Go dust off your scorpion jacket; we’re giving you a nightcall to tell you how we feel.