"Somebody That I Used To Know" (2012): When Gotye conquered the world

The connection was struck instantly by the melancholic melodic dance between a two- note guitar sample from legendary Brazil­ian musician Luiz Bonfa, with xylophone plinks of "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep". The heartstrings were plucked by the emotion­ally-charged vocals of Belgian-Australian songwriter Gotye and New Zealand singer Kimbra as they traded break-up perspec­tives. But “Somebody That I Used To Know” was carried to global domination on the shoulders of its official video by acclaimed director Natasha Pincus and the compelling performances of the two artists, naked and body-painted in stop motion animation. 

It was a long, slow-cooked success over several months following its release in Australia in July 2011, reaching its peak throughout the UK, Europe, and finally America in 2012, as the video was pro­pelled to vitality by social media champi­ons of the day Ashton Kutcher and Katy Perry. 

“Somebody That I Used To Know” was Number One everywhere, won two Grammys, four ARIA Awards and was in­escapable for two years. It confirms its timelessness more than a decade later with more than three billion streams and YouTube views - and counting.