Rebecca Black (born June 21, 1997) is an American
pop singer who gained extensive media attention with her 2011 single "
Friday". Her mother paid $4,000 to have the single and an accompanying
music video put out as a
vanity release through the
record label ARK Music Factory. The song was co-written and produced by
Clarence Jey and
Patrice Wilson of Ark Music Factory. After the video went
viral on
YouTube and other
social media sites, "Friday" was derided by many music critics and viewers, who dubbed it "the worst song ever." The music video received around 167 million views, causing Black to gain international attention as a "
viral star," before being removed from the site on June 16.
Biography
Rebecca Black was born on June 21, 1997, in
Anaheim, California. She is the daughter of John Jeffery Black and Georgina Marquez Kelly, both
veterinarians. An
honor student, Black studied dance, auditioned for school shows, attended music summer camps, and began singing publicly in 2008 after joining the patriotic group Celebration USA. In 2011 Black left public school in favor of
homeschooling, both in response to constant verbal bullying at school and in order to focus more of her time on her career.
Music career
In late 2010, a classmate of Black and music-video client of
ARK Music Factory, a
Los Angeles label, told her about the company. Black's mother paid $4,000 for Ark Music to produce her daughter's music video while the Blacks retained ownership of the master. The single, "
Friday," written entirely by Ark, was released on YouTube and
iTunes. The song's video was uploaded to YouTube on February 10, 2011, and received approximately 1,000 views in the first month. The video went
viral on March 11, 2011, acquiring millions of views on YouTube in a matter of days, becoming the most-talked-about topic on
social networking site
Twitter, and garnering mostly negative media coverage. As of June 14, 2011, the video had received more than 3,190,000 "dislikes" on
YouTube compared to more than 451,000 "likes". As of March 22, 2011, first-week sales of her digital single were estimated to be around 40,000 by ''
Billboard.'' On March 22, 2011, Black appeared on ''
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,'' during which she performed the single and discussed the negative reaction to it. The song has peaked on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 and the
New Zealand Singles Chart at number 58 and 33, respectively. In the UK, the song debuted at number 61 on the
UK Singles Chart.
In an interview with ''The Sun'', Black said that she is recording a new song for possible release as a single. She is currently working without a record deal. She also said that she is preparing materials for her debut album at Flying Pig Productions studio in Los Angeles containing songs with themes similar to that of "Friday," as she wants it to be "appropriate and clean." Black teamed up with Funny or Die on April Fools Day (the site was renamed Friday or Die) for a series of videos, including one which addresses the controversy about the driving kids in her music video, stating "We so excited about safety." She has also stated that she is a fan of Justin Bieber, and expressed interest in performing a duet with him.
In response to the YouTube video of "Friday," Black began to receive death threats in late February 2011, specifically by phone and email. These threats are being investigated by the Anaheim Police Department.
In March 2011, Ryan Seacrest reportedly helped sign Rebecca to manager Debra Baum's DB Entertainment.
MTV selected Rebecca to host its first online awards show, the O Music Awards Fan Army Party in April 2011. As an homage to "Friday," Black appears in the music video for Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)," in which Black plays alongside Perry as the hostess of a party Perry attends. "Friday" was also performed on the second season of ''Glee'' in the episode, "Prom Queen," which originally aired May 10, 2011. When asked about why the song was covered on ''Glee'', show creator Ryan Murphy replied, "The show pays tribute to pop culture and, love it or hate it, that song is pop culture."
Black released a self-produced single titled "My Moment" on July 18, with an accompanying music video, publishing it to her YouTube channel; the video as of August 22 has received, approximately, 520,000 "dislikes" against 300,000 "likes." In the "My Moment" music video, director Morgan Lawley features real life video of Black's life from both before and after her fame. Black is set to release a digital 5-track EP in August.
Black appears as herself in the music video of Katy Perry's single "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)". She appears as the host of a party in the house next door to that of "Kathy Beth Terry". At the end of the video Perry attempts to blame the excesses of the party (which had subsequently moved to her own house) on Black, only for her parents (Corey Feldman and Debbie Gibson) to disbelieve her. Later on, Perry (in character as Kathy Beth Terry) and Black hosted a livestream on Tinychat.com after weeks of Black being mentioned on Terry's twitter. Perry, who performs Friday routinely on stage as part of California Dreams Tour, also brought Black on stage to perform the song as a duet during her show at the Nokia Theater on August 5, 2011.
On August 10, 2011, Rebecca Black was featured in an ABC ''Primetime Nightline: Celebrity Secrets'' special entitled ''Underage and Famous: Inside Child Stars' Lives''.
RB Records
Rebecca Black established her own independent record label
RB Records. The first release on the new label was "My Moment", the follow up single to "Friday".
Discography
Singles
Awards and nominations
In April 2011, the ''
MTV O Music Awards'', one of the annual awards established by
MTV to honor the art, creativity, personality and technology of music into the digital space nominated "Which Seat Can I Take?" for "Favorite Animated GIF" that included footage by Rebecca Black featuring 50 Cent and Bert. Black was named "Choice Web Star" at the
2011 Teen Choice Awards in August 2011.
References
External links
Official YouTube channel
Category:1997 births
Category:American child singers
Category:American dance musicians
Category:American female pop singers
Category:ARK Music Factory
Category:Child pop musicians
Category:Internet memes
Category:Living people
Category:People from Anaheim, California
Category:Singers from California
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