Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up reaches one billion YouTube views

29 July 2021, 14:42 | Updated: 29 July 2021, 14:54

Rick Astley with his Never Gonna Give You Up video inset — Rick Astley has celebrated a YouTube milestone. Picture: 1. Dave Simpson/WireImage/Getty 2. YouTube/Rick Astley

By Jenny Mensah

Astley has reacted to his 1987 hit making the impressive milestone this week.

Never Gonna Give You Up reached an incredible milestone this week.

Rick Astley's debut single, which was written by Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman and released in 1987, has reached one billion YouTube views.

Taking to Instagram to share his reaction, the 55-year-old singer wrote: "That is mind-blowing. The world is a wonderful and beautiful place and I am very lucky."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rick Astley (@officialrickastley)

The news sees the 80s banger achieve the one billion mark alongside the likes of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, A-Ha’s Take On Me and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit.

To help celebrate the achievement, Astley has released a limited & numbered 7” blue vinyl of the song and has signed all 2500 of them.

The special edition vinyl is already sold out, but fans can visit his website for more music and merchandise.

Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Music Video)

When it was released, Never Gonna Give You Up reached number one in the UK charts, where it stayed for five weeks and became the best-selling single of that year.

But the song, which eventually topped the chart in 25 countries, can attribute some of its longevity to the famous RickRolling internet meme, which saw the video appear unexpectedly.

Foo Fighters then took the meme into the real world when they RickRolled the Westboro Baptist Church.

The church is known for their confrontational views on homosexuality and religion and have frequently held protests at high profile events such as funerals of soldiers, celebrities and even victims of mass shootings.

In 2011, the self-proclaimed Church decided to picket a Foos show in Kansas City, claiming the band were a tool of the devil because of their song Keep It Clean (Hot Buns) which was used to promote the Wasting Light tour.

But the Church also decided to picket their 2015 Sonic Highways Tour, Dave Grohl decided it was time to "Rickroll their ass".

In 2017, Rick ended up meeting the Foos and went on to perform the track with them when he was called up on stage for an impromptu duet and the band have performed a mash-up of the track with Smells Like Teen Spirit several times since.

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