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Marilyn
Monroe
W
hen recording artist and record producer
Pharrell Williams released his single
‘Happy’ at the end of last year, he couldn’t
have imagined the massive response he would receive
from his ‘feel good’ anthem. But following the release
of its accompanying music video, a montage of people
from all over the world started uploading their own
version of the song. During his interview with Oprah
Winfrey on her ‘Oprah Prime’ show, Pharrell was
reduced to tears when shown the fan-made videos.
He told the chat queen: “In the beginning the song
got zero airplay… and then we put out the video
on November 21 and all of a sudden… boom. We
were like, ‘What’s happening?’ People were putting
up their own videos… it was like no longer my
song.” The singer originally wrote and produced
the catchy song for animated film
Despicable Me
2’
, but thanks to the popularity of the music video,
Capital Xtra (formerly Choice FM) and other radio
stations playing the track continuously, it eventually
served as lead single on his second solo studio album,
G I R L.
The frequently played track also coincided
with the DVD release of the film and the launch of
the 24HoursofHappy.com site, a 24-hour long video
for the song. ‘Happy’ touched so many lives that it
sold over 650,000 copies in the UK and was played
more than 5,500 times a week on British radio during
peak time.
Samantha Morgan
discovers
the phenomenal success behind
Pharrell William’s catchy single
‘Happy’ and looks at his many
creative endeavours.
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bite
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