What Rebecca Black is doing now years after facing death threats for ‘Friday’ song aged 13
In 2011 there was one song in particular that was everywhere, and it felt impossible to get it out of your head. Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’, of course.
The song went viral online and despite how many people seemed to hate it, you just couldn’t escape it.
Black was just 13 when the song and music video were released and she became subject to heavy bullying and even death threats.
She’s been open about feeling ‘shame’ about how people know of her but she’s looking to the future nowadays and is continuing to make music.
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Now 29, she’s released a number of tracks over the years and released her debut studio album, Let Her Burn, in February 2023 with her second set to land next week.
When ‘Friday’ went viral, police officially recognised ‘death threats’ to the teen, with one demanding she removed the song from YouTube ‘or else’.
She told ABC News at the time that she couldn’t believe the things people were saying to her.
"The meanest thing I read was I hope you cut yourself and I hope you get a eating disorder so you'll look pretty," Black said.
It’s now one of the most disliked YouTube videos of all time, but you’ve got to give it to Black – despite legal struggles over the song and the trolling she’s faced, she’s kept on the music grind.
The singer has performed at multiple events as a DJ, something she has used as a ‘personal creative outlet’.
She told Refinery29 that it’s helped her to get ‘in tune with an audience’ and learn how to adapt with them.
“I think that’s such an important part of the type of DJ I want to be: Not only someone with my own identity and sound, but one who knows how to move with the energy of the room and what people want,” she explained. That is so opposite from how I’ve always approached my live shows, which are rehearsed down to the second.”
In 2025, Black released her third EP Salvation and on Friday (4 September) she’ll release her second studio album, Age of the Exhibitionist.
Speaking to NME she described her new music as ‘heavier, harder, faster and louder than anything I’ve made before’.
She’s already released three singles from this new album so far: ‘Speakerphone’, ‘Hot Wet Delirious’ and ‘Michael’.
With a Boiler Room set under her belt and a spot on Forbes’ 30 under 30 music list, Black still pulls out mixes of her 2011 track at events, respect.
And look, whatever you think of it, ‘Friday’ will forever remain an integral part of pop culture history. I bet it’s already in your head now…
“Gotta get down on Friday, Everybody’s looking forward to the weekend….”
Jess Battison