Viral Sensation Rebecca Black Is Back

At 13, singer Rebecca Black was a viral sensation…for all the wrong reasons. Six years later, she’s speaking up about what it took to find her voice again.

- Sydney Adamson

It was almost six years ago that I sat at my computer with puffy eyes, tears running down my face, hateful YouTube comments flooded my vision  and made my head swim.

Remarks like “This is the worst song on YouTube” and “My ears are bleeding” flashed faster than I could read them. As my notifications blew up, each new comment hit me harder and harder. I was 13 years old and the music video for my first single, “Friday,” was in the midst of going viral—and not in a good way.

People hated the song. They mocked the video. They thought that both were horrendous.

What I felt was a fun and lighthearted ode to everyone’s favorite day of the week changed me from a typical, musical theater-loving girl from Irvine, Calif., into a worldwide lightning rod for hate.

Here’s how it all started: The production company I worked with on the song posted the music video on its YouTube channel in February of 2011. It got a couple thousand views, nothing crazy.