Ghost’s Mary On A Cross has been streamed on Spotify one billion times.
The 2019 single is the latest addition to the 10-digit club, joining such heavy metal hits as Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters, System Of A Down’s Chop Suey!, Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train and Evanescence’s Bring Me To Life.
The song was originally a deep cut on the B-side of Ghost’s two-track release, Seven Inches Of Satanic Panic. In the mythology of the Grammy-winning Swedish hard rock band, it was recorded by a late-60s precursor to the current lineup.
This ‘proto-Ghost’ was fronted by Papa Emeritus Nihil – who, like every other masked singer in the group’s history, had the singing voice of creative leader Tobias Forge.
Mary… didn’t get a standalone release or tie-in music video, with the band’s attention instead going to Seven Inches’ A-side Kiss The Go-Goat, but that changed once the track went unexpectedly viral on TikTok. A music video, featuring animation inspired by Scooby-Doo! Where Are You?, finally premiered in July 2024, to promote the band’s feature film Rite Here Rite Now.
Currently, Mary… has 160 million views on YouTube, while a live version from 2022 has 120 million and the music video has 41 million. It’s become a mainstay at shows, having been performed 250 times according to setlist wiki setlist.fm.
Forge, who co-wrote the song with collaborators Salem Al Fakir and Vincent Pontare, has been loath to disclose what Mary… is about. He told Mastodon drummer/singer Brann Dailor on a live stream: “There are multiple layers in the lyrics that it might be important for people to understand. The chorus is written very tongue in cheek of course. ‘Go down’ doesn’t necessarily mean as in a 69 sense of the word… it can also mean go down as in go down in history, your own ascent.”
Forge added that the titular Mary could be either Mary, the mother of Jesus, or Mary Magdalene, one of the apostle’s close followers. He explained that he was fascinated by Magdalene being “miscredited”, due to the common conception of her being a repentant sex worker, despite the idea having no biblical basis.
After Mary…, Ghost’s most popular song on Spotify is 2016’s Square Hammer, which has been streamed 299 million times. It’s closely followed by 2018’s Dance Macabre, with 264 million.
The band are currently on hiatus following the completion of their globe-trotting Skeletour in February, but it’s been reported that Forge is preparing to revive his pre-Ghost death metal band Repugnant and play live shows. A poster in Stockholm seemingly teasing a Repugnant reunion show was spotted earlier this week.
