As the Childish Gambino/Donald Glover episode of Saturday Night Live was airing on May 5, Glover’s musical alter-ego was also debuting an enthralling video for “This Is America.”
Over the last nine days, the visual is sitting at 112 million YouTube views, while the song itself has been streamed over 160 million times across various platforms. Subsequently, the track has made its Billboard Hot 100 debut at #1.
Directed by Hiro Murai, who frequently works with Glover on his hit FX show Atlanta,the video earned 85.3 million views in its first week on YouTube. According to a press release, that marks the biggest first week debut of any video this year, which helped land the song at #1 on the YouTube Songs chart in 11 countries, including the U.S., U.K. and Australia.
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It’s also tied for the fifth fastest music video to reach 100 million views in YouTube history.
“This Is America” isn’t tied to any particular Gambino project but he’s currently working on his follow-up to 2016’sAwaken! My Love, which is expected to be his final album.
Revisit the “This Is America” video above.[apple_news_ad type=”any”]
