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YouTube star PewDiePie apologizes over racial slur

Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie has apologized for blurting out a racial slur while playing a livestreamed video game.

YouTube star PewDiePie apologizes over racial slur
PewDiePie's real name is Felix Kjellberg. Photo: Ole Gunnar Onsøien/NTB scanpix/TT

In a video clip available online since Sunday the 27-year-old Swede, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, can be heard using the N-word in an expletive-laden tirade at his opponent.

In a new YouTube video posted on Tuesday that was viewed more than 4.7 million times within 15 hours, Kjellberg said he was sorry.

“You probably won't believe me when I say this, but every time I go online and hear other players use the same kind of language that I did I always find it extremely immature and stupid, and I hate how I now personally fed into that part of gaming,” he said.

“It was something that I said in the heat of the moment. I said the worst word I could possibly think of and it just sort of slipped out.”

“I'm not going to make any excuses as to why it did, because there are no excuses for it.”

PewDiePie is known for posting humorous clips and playing livestreamed video games for his more than 57 million followers on YouTube, making him the site's most watched user.

It is not the first time Kjellberg has been at the centre of controversy. In February he lost contracts with YouTube and Disney over anti-Semitic comments (for which he also apologized), and he was temporarily blocked from Twitter in September 2016 after joking he had joined the Islamic State group.

“I'm disappointed in myself because it seems like I've learned nothing from all these past controversies,” Kjellberg said.

“I'm just an idiot, but that doesn't make what I said or how I said it okay. It was not okay,” he added.

“I'm really sorry if I offended, hurt or disappointed anyone with all of this.”

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.

'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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