Pharrell Williams’ 2014 is off to a fantastic start as the producer/singer was just nominated for an Academy Award in the “Best Original Song” category for his hit song “Happy” from the movie Despicable Me 2.
As we all know, it is extremely rare for a hip-hop artist to be recognized by the Academy. If Williams takes home the Oscar, he will be only the third hip-hop act in history to do so, joining Eminem (“Lose Yourself”) and Three Six Mafia (“It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp”) in the record books.
Though the song has not cracked the top ten stateside, it has already shot to number one in a number of countries including Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and the Netherlands.
The video for “Happy” is already in the record books as the first 24 hour music video in history. Upon it’s release, it was featured on the website 24hoursofhappy.com where the four minute track was looped for 24 hours and various people, including celebs such as Magic Johnson, Jamie Foxx, and Jimmy Kimmel stopping by to do cameos at various hours, with Pharrell appearing every hour on the hour. The website also allows viewers to scroll through various points in the 24-hour timeframe, and includes all 360 four-minute segments of the video. A four minute version of the video was released to Youtube and all video outlets shortly thereafter.
The 86th annual Academy Awards air on ABC on March 2.
