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Everyone started listening to Missy Elliott again after the Super Bowl

By
February 2, 2015 at 1:58 p.m. EST

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/entertainment/music/perry-elliott-wow-at-super-bowl-halftime-show/2015/02/02/32c461ff-e0db-4c24-a3c5-fad351da5f5a_video.html

Oh hey, remember Missy Elliott? And how innovative she is? And how you can’t sit still when listening to her music?

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Her Super Bowl halftime Show performance apparently sparked these kinds of questions for many, which isn’t all that surprising given these songs are more than a decade old. (Raise your hand if this makes you feel ancient.) But some people didn’t even know who Missy was to begin with! Too bad for them.

Well, after Missy Elliott was broadcast into millions of homes Sunday night, the people wanted more. As of Monday afternoon, Missy Elliott’s songs had cracked the top 15 on iTunes charts, with “Work It” at number four, “Get Ur Freak On” at number six and “Lose Control” at number 12.

Her songs also spiked on Spotify. According to the service, Missy Elliott experienced a 676 percent increase in streams from before the Super Bowl halftime Show, peaking between 11 p.m. and midnight. Plays of “Lose Control” jumped by 1,396 percent, “Get Ur Freak On” by 922 percent and “Work It” by 896 percent.

By comparison, Katy Perry’s music had an 85 percent jump on Spotify during the same time period. But her songs already had way more plays than Elliott’s. For instance, “Work It” has been played about nine million times, while Perry’s “Dark Horse” has been played about 245 million times.

The masses still had questions, and turned to Google to search for things like, when was Missy Elliott popular? (Late-1990s to mid-2000s.) How does Katy Perry know her? (Unclear but Perry said her performance would make jaws drop and faces melt.) And what is she really saying backwards in “Work It?” (The chorus, but backwards.)

Elliott hasn’t put out an album of new material since 2005; she’s been largely absent from the music industry for years as she has battled with Graves disease. In the meantime, she has worked on the albums of other musicians, and last year she promised that she would eventually put out a comeback album of her own.

Her Sunday night performance parked a flood of support from fellow musicians and artists, and thankful tweets from Missy.

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