In 2011 the song “Somebody That I Used To Know” hit the charts. Gotye was the name of the hour. The singer made it to number one in the charts in the USA, Australia, Israel, Italy and Germany.
The video by the native Belgian who lives in Australia and his guest singer Kimbra even caught the attention of Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher, who did his part in promoting the song.
Even if Gotye released two more albums before his breakthrough, he will probably always be associated with the megahit.
You could think of a typical “one hit wonder”, but with Wouter Andre De Backer, his real name, nothing is actually typical.
Anyone who thinks Gotye’s music career is about money is wrong. For example, he did without pre-roll ads on YouTube.
And that although his hit “Somebody That I Used to Know” has now been viewed more than 1.7 billion times and he would have earned more than good for that alone if he had shown advertisements before the song was played.
“I’m not interested in selling my music,” he revealed in an interview
He also decided to pay 50 percent of the proceeds from the song to the musician Luiz Bonfá because Gotye had used a sample of the musician.
In 2014 he surprisingly announced that there would be no more Gotye music. And that’s how it stayed.
But the 41-year-old has only disappeared as a solo artist. He is still active as the drummer for The Basics.
And on the side he looks after the legacy of the French electronic music pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey.
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