The YouTube video of ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ has passed the 1 billion view mark and set a new milestone for the song.
The song is arguably Astley’s greatest hit and has become a cult following on the internet. Memes of the term ‘Rickrolling’ abound, and users are pranking other people into clicking links that redirect them to the YouTube video.
‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ was released in 1987 and hit the top 1 chart in the UK. The song lived on as a meme and a prank for unsuspecting internet users. On April Fool’s Day the video garnered an impressive 2.3 million views.
Rick Astley went on Twitter to celebrate the milestone, saying how he was ‘very lucky’ and how the 1 billion views was ‘mind blowing’. The singer uploaded a short celebratory video to accompany the tweet and has reached more than 8 thousand likes and 400-plus comments.