“Sex on Fire” is the first single released from American band Kings of Leon’s fourth studio album, Only by the Night. The song gave Kings of Leon their first number-one single in Australia, Finland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, charting at the top spot on digital downloads alone in the latter country, before its physical release. In September 2009, it was Britain’s second most-downloaded digital single ever. The song has sold 1.2 million copies in the United Kingdom as of November 2012. It has also gained significant popularity in the United States, reaching number one on the Hot Modern Rock tracks chart and number 56 on the Billboard, making it the band’s second highest-charting song there on the former chart.
The song was written about lead singer Caleb’s then-girlfriend (and now-wife), model Lily Aldridge. In an interview with Robbie, Marieke and the Doctor on Australian radio station Triple J, Nathan Followill explained that the band never intended the song to be named “Sex on Fire” and that it was not intended to be about sexuality.
In the United Kingdom, “Sex on Fire” entered the official UK chart at number one in September 2008 and went on to an unbroken 42 weeks on the chart, only dropping out due to the surge in sales of Michael Jackson titles immediately after his death, but after a two-week absence it was back for another 37 weeks, re-entering the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart at number six in September 2009. Further reappearances extended its tally of weeks to 90, making it the third most charted single of all time.
In 2008, the song earned the band their first Grammy nominations. The song was nominated for Best Rock Song, and won the award for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Group. In addition, the album earned a nomination for Best Rock Album. Channel V Australia named the song as the third biggest hit of 2008.
The director of the music video for “Sex on Fire” was Sophie Muller. As of February 2022, the video has over 425 million views on You Tube. At the end of the video, Caleb opens his mouth and smoke starts coming out of his mouth. In the video, the band is seen playing in the next room at an abandoned factory. Some of the scenes in the video shows Caleb’s brothers holding Caleb, who is untied to a soft mattress, Nathan washing his hair in a black water tub, Matthew explaining to Nathan and Jared about Caleb and also Matthew eating a chicken wing and Caleb looking at strange shadows while lying on a soft mattress.
