Chorley artist OXYGEN is blown away by success of first official release as he thanks supporters

Kenny Waine, known by the stage name OXYGEN, has just released his first single since signing with Time Records and Universal Music Group.

Called ‘Into the Night’, the dance track came out on Friday, June 2 in over 70 countries.

The Post spoke to Kenny prior to the song’s release date, and now nearly a week on, we caught up with him to see how it’s all gone...

UK success

Even on the first day of the song’s release, Kenny says he was overwhelmed by Into the Night’s reception.

Kenny, who had spent the morning promoting the single in Chorley with friends and family, explained: “The weirdest thing happened, we’d been out all day since like nine in the morning, it was red hot, so when we got to Manchester to promote the single further, we stopped at the Corn Exchange for a drink at around 1pm and the song was just on!

“My sister was like is your song playing? And I was like no, there's no way, it’s only been live a couple of hours, but then my other sister was like ‘no it is it is!’, so we all started singing it and the bar tender turned it up, so it was just crazy.”

Within the first 24 hours of Into the Night’s release, the song went to number 9 in the UK dance charts on ITunes, and number 25 in the overall UK charts.

When asked if he was suprised, Kenny said: "Absolutely! I didn't actually know it was doing so well because I was out in Manchester, so I wasn't on my phone constantly. It was my label that messaged me, and he was like, ‘wow, I can't believe it.’ Because they had told me it's my first song so not to have too much expectations when it comes to charts because you have to build a fan base and get yourself out there more, so they were just so surprised that it shot up so fast. I think it’d had only been out like a couple of hours when it got to number nine in the dance charts, and then everyone started messaging me, sending screenshots, it was just crazy, my phone was going off all day.”

Global success

Asides from finding success on home turf, Into the Night has also proved popular further afield.

Over the weekend, Kenny found a website which shows how much air play artists have had in different countires, and says he was shocked to see how much it had appeared in Italy.

Kenny explained: “I saw the song got like seven plays on the day it came out, and then it got another five the day after, and now it's just constantly in rotation on all these different stations in Italy. I messaged my manager from the label and I was like, ‘Is this real?’ and he was like ‘yeah, all the radio stations in Italy are playing it, especially this one station called Piterpan’ – which is one of the biggest dance radio stations in Italy so that was unreal.

“I really wish I was over there right now because it's unbelievable how much it's been getting played.”

Grateful for the support

Kenny told the Post: “I just want to say the biggest thank you ever because it's already done way better than I thought it could do in just a couple of days. It’s just so overwhelming to hear it on the radios in Manchester, Italy, people talking about it, people downloading it and sharing it. I'm honestly forever grateful, and I just hope that it can continue.”

What’s next for OXYGEN?

Kenny says he is now working on three new songs, and will be able to choose one of them for his second single, expected to be out in August.

In the meantime, he hopes to perform at festivals throughout the summer, although nothing is as yet confirmed.

Kenny added: “I just want to make sure the next song is even more successful. I know it's only been a couple of days, but I want to push even more now and make sure I've got everything ready, get more music done, so yeah, it's very exciting!”

You can download Into the Night here.