Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” was the first digital download to sell one million copies in the United States.
The milestone reflected the rapid growth of legal digital music stores in the mid-2000s. “Hollaback Girl” became one of the signature songs of Stefani’s solo career, combining cheerleading chants, marching-band imagery, and a highly stylized music video.
The song appeared on Stefani’s 2004 debut solo album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Its commercial success extended beyond physical singles and radio, showing how downloads were becoming a major measure of a hit’s reach.
The phrase “first million-selling download” refers to U.S. digital sales of the single, not to the number of physical copies or worldwide sales. Those are separate statistics and are often conflated in summaries of the song’s success.