Gotye’s ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ Soars to 2 Billion Views on YouTube

Gotye just hit a major milestone: The 42-year-old Belgian musician has now reached 2 billion views on YouTube for his 11-year-old smash-hit music video “Somebody That I Used to Know,” featuring New Zealand art-pop artist Kimbra.

In the video, Gotye can be seen with Kimbra appearing naked while standing in front of a canvas that gets colored with different shades. The two sing their parts of the breakup song while fading into the wall print. While the video may be a simple concept, the message of the song goes deep and helped define the 2010s music scene.

The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight consecutive weeks from April to June 2012. It went on to win Grammys for record of the year and best pop duo/group performance, while Gotye’s Making Mirrors album won as best alternative music album.

Fans in the comment section of the video describe Gotye’s new accomplishment as “well deserved.”

During the year of the track’s release, Gotye was already an established artist in Australia. He was gearing up to release Making Mirrors and had dropped the lead single, “Eyes Wide Open.” “Based upon that, I didn’t have any expectations,” Gotye told Billboard in 2019 of the reception to “Eyes.”

Before its official release, the audio of “Somebody That I Used to Know” leaked onto iTunes, with Australia, Belgium and Netherlands starting to play the track. The video arrived, and the rest was historyi

“iTunes, YouTube and Facebook — at the different points they were at — all had a pretty big impact on how this song and video were shared initially,” Gotye told Billboard. “To even have a few hundred million views, it was one of the most-watched music videos at that time.”

Watch the video below.