Who is Rebecca Black: Biography, Early Life, Career, Personal Life, Net Worth

Sally Polly April 29, 2022 | 06:32

Rebecca Black is an American YouTube personality and pop singer. She gained tremendous fame for her famous song “Friday”. Keep reading her full biography in the article below.

Who is Rebecca Black: Biography, Early Life, Career, Personal Life, Net Worth. Photo: Variety

Rebecca Renee Black (born June 21, 1997) is an American singer and YouTuber. She gained extensive media coverage when the music video for her 2011 single "Friday" went viral on YouTube and other social media sites. "Friday" was derided by many music critics and viewers, who dubbed it "the worst song ever". Black went on to release other songs including her Dave Days collaboration "Saturday". She currently uploads videos on her YouTube channel about various topics. She has released two independent extended plays, RE / BL (2017) and Rebecca Black Was Here (2021). Here are her biography, early life, career, personal life and net worth.

Who is Rebecca Black?

Photo: The Guardian

Rebecca Black is an American YouTube personality and pop singer. She gained tremendous fame for her famous song “Friday”. She uploads music and other videos to her YouTube channel. Her first single, “Friday” sold over 442,000 copies in the United States alone. The song peaked at Rank #58 in the Billboard Hot 100 list in its second week of release. She is believed to be associated with ARK Music Factory. She has been a hot topic in the media due to some controversy with the ARK Music Factory. The viral video was removed yet its re-upload and the original views make up to 240,000,000 views approximately. She has been singing and dancing since her early childhood. She has a strong family support for her singing career, especially from her Mom. She is an active user on social networking sites, especially, Twitter, where she likes to express herself through her tweets.

Early Life and Education

Photo: Rolling Stones

Black was born in Irvine, California. She is the daughter of John Jeffery Black and Georgina Marquez Kelly, both veterinarians. Her mother is of Mexican descent, and her father, originally from Iowa, is of English, Italian, and Polish descent. Black attended private school from kindergarten to 6th grade, and moved to a public school due to bullying. She joined the school's musical theater program, where she felt she was "meant to be". In April 2011, Black dropped out in favor of homeschooling, citing both a need to focus on her career and a desire to avoid taunts from her former classmates. Black has claimed that she was also failing English class due to her busy schedule.

Career and Major Works

Rebecca’s career started with her first single, “Friday”. The music video was recorded by her with a collaborative effort with the ARK Music Factory. Her Mom inspired her to make the video and paid ARK $4000 to assist her in doing so. The video was released on YouTube and grossed a 1000 views in its first month. However, it went viral later and earned huge views and subscribes.

Later, she was selected by MTV to host its first online awards show, O Music Awards Fan Army Party in the early 2011.

After that, she made several other singles like ‘My Moment’, ‘Person of Interest’, ‘Sing it’ and ‘In Your Words’.

In 2012, Telstra brought her to Australia and made her their ambassador to promote their 4G service. She also signed into Maker Studios YouTube Network in the same year.

In late 2013, she released her sequel to ‘Friday’, with Dave Days. It was called ‘Saturday’. Saturday reached Rank #55 in the Billboard’s Hot 100 list. However, it didn’t stay there more than a week.

After ‘Saturday’, she uploaded many covers on her YouTube channel. Some of them were ‘We Can’t Stop’, ‘Wrecking Ball’, and ‘Wild’.

She played herself in the documentary film released in 2012, ‘Katy Perry: Part of Me’. This was a 3D autobiographical documentary on Katy Perry.

She voiced the character of ‘Penny’ in the 2013 animated film, ‘Legend of a Rabbit’. Later, in 2014, she was cast as herself in the ‘Fine Brothers in a Web Series’.

In 2016, she played herself in the Web series, ‘Life after Friday’.

She had announced the release of an album by 2015 which according to her, she had been working on since the release of ‘Friday’. However, she did not release any album or even a single after ‘Saturday’.

In 2016, however, she made a return when she released ‘The Great Divide’ which was followed by ‘Foolish’ in 2017.

Major Works

Rebecca’s most popular work is her first song, “Friday”. This video was released in a collaboration with ARK Music Factory. It later got into controversies regarding the rights of the song. The Blacks and ARK got into legal disputes over it and the video was removed off YouTube’s channel of ARK.Later, Rebecca uploaded it on her own channel. The total views have crossed 240,000,000 in 2015.

After ‘Friday’, her only song to make it to the Billboard’s Hot 100, she released ‘Saturday’. It is the sequel of ‘Friday’. It reached even higher ranks in the list.

She released a web video called ‘Life After Friday’ where she bids goodbye to her parents and tells them that she would not be attending college. Instead, she pursues her dreams after settling in Los Angeles. It was released on Go90.

Awards & Achievements

Photo: NME

Rebecca was nominated for the Favorite Animated GIF Award by MTV O Music Awards in 2011 for “Which seat can I Take” that included her footage.

She received the Teen Choice Award for Choice Web Star in August 2011.

In 2012, she became the topmost searched on Google, defeating even Lady Gaga and Adele. The statistics were provided by ‘Zeitgeist’.

Her second most famous song, ‘Saturday’, made it to the Billboard’s Hot 100 list. It reached as high as #55.

Her debut release, ‘Friday’ which earned her all the fame reached #72 in the Billboard’s Hot 100 list in the first week. In the second week, it reached to #58. It stayed in the top 100 for around six weeks. The song was so popular that it made it to the top 100 in countries like Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, and United Kingdom.

She was featured on ABC’s ‘Primetime Nightline: Celebrity Secrets’ Underage and Famous: Inside Child Stars’ Lives’.

Personal Life

Photo: Stereogum

Rebecca was threatened for death through e mails and phone calls after the release of Friday. She often feels like she is cyber bullied. However, she was backed by Simone Cowell and Lady Gaga.

She loves dancing at parties and has been doing it since she was a child.

She doesn’t overestimate her singing capabilities but claims that she is not a bad singer at all.

She believes in herself and wants to prove to people that there is more in her than what people normally think. She believes that she is worth something and that she would be big someday.

She finds Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez very inspiring as they have achieved quite a bit at a very young age and wants to be like them.

Her favorite band is One Direction and claims to have a huge crush on Josh Hutcherson.

She is straight and likes guys with a sweet cute smile and bright expressive cute eyes.

She has a lot of friends and believes that they make an important part of her life.

Rebecca Black Is A Queer Icon!

The singer took the challenge of surviving in the competitive market during the pandemic scenario. However, she got mixed reactions from the global audience during this difficult phase of life. The young star is famous for emotional songs on pop synthy. Thus, it can be said that Rebecca brought a new era to the world music industry.

Part of The Queer Community

Photo: People.com

Rebecca Black started spreading her melodious voice among global listeners by opening a YouTube channel when she was 16. Furthermore, she looked forward to pursuing a promising career in the singing world without any third-party intervention. Many people say it is commendable to watch such a young artist trying her luck believing her own terms only. Black made a promising appearance with fabulous singles like Girlfriend and many others in the remix world.

Now, it is time to reveal why Rebecca is famous as the Queer Icon. The story started from one of the posts of the singer in 2020. The talented personality expressed how happy she is after joining the Queer Community. It is really interesting to know that she went for a tour in January and even got multiple ideas to create beautiful songs.

Open About Her Personal Life

Photo: BBC

Rebecca Black never hesitated in opening up about her sexuality in public. She expressed freely that she acknowledged her decision to come out of the tough situation and talk about herself without hesitation. Moreover, Black added that she now responds to most of the queries people tend to ask her. It is like a new life where the singer is more confident about various aspects of her life, both professional and personal.

Rebecca shared her gratitude for the welcoming people she came across during the journey. She also mentioned that this was the right space to open up before the public and win the hearts of her fans with her incredible songs. Nothing can be more magical than the effect a lovely song can create. After revealing her sexuality, several people included the name Black in the list of gays. She regarded the performance at GLAAD Awards as “Meaningful.” The program that took place last April is the 32nd Award show of GLAAD. The Gay Icon never missed any chance to mesmerize the audience with her fantastic voice.

Public Acceptance Grew More

Black confessed that she felt so low before sharing anything about her sexuality in a recent interview. Moreover, the probable reactions from her audience were a big concern for her. However, the queer community encouraged her to be open about herself without overthinking. She feels very special when so many people come in support of her and enhances her confidence.

Rebecca’s happiness becomes evident as you listen to one of her most famous songs, Girlfriend. On a podcast called Dating Straight, Black first shared the story of her breakup and her sexual orientation. A fan wrote in the comment that once, this person disregarded Friday and criticized the same. However, it is truly unbelievable that the same person feels an urge to communicate with the same singer. It is thus evident how Black overcame all the challenges and grew as a professional singer over time.

All the recent projects of Black showed her emotions and outlook on the world today and the people around her. Moreover, she said that previously she felt that people misunderstood her. However, things have taken a drastic turn after being clearer about her life. The queer people and queer songs made her think differently about people’s perseverance. Furthermore, the new music videos ensure that she shares many incidents about multiple aspects of life.

Net Worth

Rebecca Black is an American singer and YouTube personality with a net worth of $500 thousand. She gained fame in 2011 thanks to her viral music single "Friday", which was widely made fun of and criticized. She then had to spend a year or two being America's laughingstock, so her net worth hasn't come easy.