The writer of one of the happiest songs cried as he was shown what a phenomenon the chart topper has become.
In a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey on her upcoming show, Oprah Prime, Pharrell Williams, better known as Pharrell, was shown a video by the talk show host of how his hit, Happy, has impacted people all over the world. The video left artist in tears.
"Why am I crying on Oprah?" Pharrell said through tears as he was overcome with emotion.
"It's overwhelming because I love what I do and I just appreciate the fact that people have believed in me for so long that I could make it to this point, and feel, to feel that."
Happy is a song from the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack and was also included on Pharrell's second studio album, G I R L.
The song was written and produced by Pharrell and was released on November 21 2013, along with a long-form music video presented via the website 24hoursofhappy.com. The site was launched featuring a visual presentation of Happy advertised as being "the world's first 24-hour music video". The video comprises the looped four-minute song with various people dancing and miming along.
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The single, according to Billboard, "became the first single in 57 years to start a third separate run at No. 1".
The Grammy award-winning artist partnered with the United Nations – which declared March 20 the second annual International Day of Happiness – to encourage people around the world to share videos of themselves dancing to Happy. Pharrell sorted through the submissions, all tagged with the hashtag #HAPPYDAY, and then shared them on his website.
South African filmmakers Shamiel Soni and Tannan Woods directed a Cape Town video response, which has since received more than 470 062 views on Youtube since March 24.