Rebecca Black will always remember being “the butt of a joke” — or Girl Gaga coming to her protection.
The singer-songwriter was solely an adolescent when her debut single “Friday” was launched in 2011 to viral and widespread mockery on social media, however she recalled a real vibe shift after her largest idol on the time got here to her protection.
“It was so special,” she advised Legendary Kitchen in an interview Tuesday. “And it’s only meant more to me, I think, as I’ve kind of gone throughout my career and have tried to navigate this entire process. I mean, at the time, it was such a crazy experience to be a 13-year-old.”
“Friday,” a pop tune about an adolescent anticipating the tip of her faculty week, was written and produced for Black by file label ARK Music Manufacturing facility as a present from her mom. However it was torched upon launch for its fundamental lyrics and shoddily directed music video in the course of the nascent days of YouTube and social media, which she stated Tuesday “can be slightly crushing as a kid.”
The tune unwittingly made Black a punching bag till Girl Gaga herself decried the backlash.
“I think it’s fantastic,” stated Gaga about “Friday” at a Musicians@Google occasion on the time, per Billboard. “I say Rebecca Black is a genius and anyone that’s telling her she’s cheesy is full of shit.”
Black discovered one more gracious defender in Katy Perry, who gave her a cameo months later in the music video for “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.).” Black stated Tuesday she had been “stanning all of these queens” once they unexpectedly invited her into the fold.
“I was a huge Lady Gaga fan, I was a huge Katy Perry fan,” stated Black in the course of the interview, including: “It was such a crazy experience to go from living in my bedroom … to all of a sudden them mentioning your name somewhere or just acknowledging that you exist.”
Left: Aliah Anderson/WireImage/Getty Photographs; Proper: Jordan Strauss/Invision/Related Press
“It was just a bizarre one-two of like, ‘Wait, this person knows I exist? That doesn’t make sense,’ to immediately being the butt of a joke,” defined Black. “I just was so appreciative” of celebrities like Gaga and Perry coming to her protection, she stated.
Black has since turn out to be a real singer-songwriter who authors her personal work and launched her debut studio album “Let Her Burn” in 2023.
She argued Tuesday that fandom itself has modified for the reason that 2010s — and that Gaga and Perry led that cost themselves.
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“To me, not to say that any one artist is 100% responsible for their fans’ behavior, but you do kind of lead the way a little bit, of guiding the messaging,” stated Black. “And I think ever since then, so many Gaga fans and Katy fans have always been just so kind to me.”
