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Here’s when Swedish Youtube star PewDiePie will delete his channel

Swedish Youtube star PewDiePie has set a time for when he will close his channel, suggesting he will follow through on a protest against the video hosting site that would mean the end of its most-watched outlet.

Published: 9 December 2016 09:54 CET
Here's when Swedish Youtube star PewDiePie will delete his channel
The end of Youtube's most-watched channel is near. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT

Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, has totaled more than 13.8 billion views on Youtube to date, beating the likes of Justin Bieber and Rihanna.

On Tuesday the outspoken Swede promised to eliminate the channel entirely however, alleging that Youtube has been unsubscribing viewers from channels without consent and expressing surprise that some of his videos had been viewed fewer than two million times.

“YouTube wants to kill my channel… I will delete my channel once PewDiePie hits 50 million,” he said earlier this week.

On Thursday, the 50 million subscribers mark was hit, and the video blogger subsequently tweeted to confirm that he would delete his channel at 5pm GMT on Friday, December 9th.

He will still be active on Youtube through other means however, saying he would create a new channel.

This isn't the Gothenburg native's first act of online protest. In September, he launched a bizarre attack against social media platform Twitter which involved a picture of a penis and led to speculation that he had joined Isis. 

 

 

YOUTUBE

‘Take On Me’ tops a billion YouTube views: What makes 80s Norwegian hit so enduring?

It’s arguably the biggest success in the history of Norwegian pop, and A-ha’s 1984 pop classic ‘Take On Me’ this week reached a new milestone.

Published: 21 February 2020 15:08 CET
'Take On Me' tops a billion YouTube views: What makes 80s Norwegian hit so enduring?
A-Ha performing in 2015. Photo: AFP

The song combines synthpop with acoustic guitars, keyboards and drums and is indisputably the band’s signature tune and one of the most evocative pop songs of the decade.

That is complemented by a memorable music video which combined live action sequences with black-and-white pencil sketch animated overlays, in what was then an innovative technique called rotoscoping. It won six awards at the 1986 MTV Music Video Awards.

Perhaps the combination of both music and visuals has driven Take On Me into the realms of YouTube royalty. The official video, originally released in 1985, was recently restored and upgraded to 4K resolution to improve visual quality, Warner Music Norway wrote in a press statement.

In any case, A-ha now join a small list of artists with music videos that have tipped the 10-figure mark for total views on the social media website.

While South Korean rapper Psy’s 2012 hit Gangnam Style and Despacito by Luis Fonsi (2017) have famously garnered monstrous numbers of YouTube views, it’s arguably harder for songs which pre-date widespread use of the Internet to rack up those kind of figures.

Take On Me joins two Guns N’ Roses songs (November Rain, Sweet Child o’ Mine), Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit in an elite club of just five songs from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s with over a billion views.

Numb by Linkin Park was the first pre-YouTube video from the 2000s to reach a billion views.

“Obviously the video is unique and it has some features that stand up and stand the test of time,” he shared. “It’s hand drawn which makes it what it is,” A-ha guitarist Magne Furuholmen told Billboard last year.

“The song also seems to resonate with people across time. It’s just very fortunate to have such a big song in our catalogue,” Furuholmen said.

“We probably spent a few years talking it down, trying to get people to focus on new stuff we’re doing. At this point, certainly speaking for myself, I’m just surprised and proud that the song has done so well and still finds an audience,” he added.

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