Rick Astley's iconic Never Gonna Give You Up has officially crossed 1 billion views on YouTube. For anyone that's been around on the internet for any amount of time, this is a video that should be incredibly familiar. It's become a well-known joke to share a link disguised as something else, get someone to click it, and then trick them into watching Astley's hit song from the 80s. This is referred to as 'Rickrolling,' and it's since become an internet staple.
At the time, Never Gonna Give You Up was a considerable success for Astley. Released in July 1987, the song hit the number one spot on the American Billboard Hot 100 in March 1988. That was followed by it being the number one song on respective charts in the United Kingdom and South Africa, in addition to being among the top 25 songs across numerous other countries. While following songs from Astley didn't see the same level of success, it was an impressive debut release from the singer.
34 years following the song's debut, the official music video for Never Gonna Give You Up has crossed 1 billion views on YouTube. Astley confirmed the news on Twitter on July 28, saying, "1 BILLION views for Never Gonna Give You Up on YouTube! Amazing, crazy, wonderful!" At the time of publication, the video is currently sitting at over 1.1 billion. That's especially impressive considering the video wasn't uploaded to YouTube until October 2009, meaning it got all the way up to 1 billion in less than 12 years.
There are some folks that likely watch the video intentionally and unironically, but a lot of its success is likely due to the Rickrolling mentioned above. The trend first began in 2007 before Astley's official video was even on YouTube, with it quickly picking up steam from there. In 2008, it was already so popular that YouTube Rickrolled everyone for April Fool's — linking all of its featured videos for the day to Never Gonna Give You Up instead.
With its new title of 1 billion views, Never Gonna Give You Up joins the ranks of other historic YouTube videos, including music videos for Gangman Style, Baby, and others. Some videos reached the milestone faster than Astley did and have since gone on to get 2 billion, 3 billion, and more, but that doesn't make Never Gonna Give You Up any less special. It's timeless, filled with 80s cheese, and — in addition to being a well-known joke — is also a legitimately fun song. Congrats, Rick. Here's to the next 1 billion!
Source: Rick Astley
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