Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

“See You Again”, Featuring Jewish Pop Star Charlie Puth, Becomes Most Watched Video On YouTube

Among the many, many hundreds of thousands of videos on YouTube, the collaboration between rapper Wiz Khalifa and Jewish singer Charlie Puth has garnered the most views.

“See You Again” is an ode to actor Paul Walker, the stupendously sexy “Fast and Furious” star who died in a fiery car crash in 2013. The song was commissioned for the seventh “Furious” film, shot just before Walker’s death.

The song was Puth’s debut and it remains his most successful single, although he’s gone on to collaborate with artists like Selena Gomez and Meghan Trainor since.

Fascinatingly, the video strips “Gangnam Style”, a video that seems to have followed the perfect formula for virality, of the top honor. The reason for any video’s virality can never be perfectly pinned down but at least one Forward staff members thinks “See You Again” was boosted by the thousands of funerals at which it was played. This old Slate article seems to agree.

You can watch the video below.

Becky Scott is the editor of The Schmooze. Follow her on Twitter, @arr_scott

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.