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Rick Astley’s 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up” reached one billion streams on Spotify
The song gained newfound popularity in the 2000s thanks to the rickrolling bait-and-switch meme
Less than 1,000 songs have garnered one billion streams on Spotify
Rick Astley is never gonna give you up — and neither will his fans.
On Monday, June 2, the Grammy-nominated artist shared his thoughts on the 1987 song “Never Gonna Give You Up” reaching one billion streams on Spotify.
“So who would’ve believed after all these years ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ has had a billion streams on Spotify. That’s a billion streams. How amazing,” Astley, 59, said in an Instagram video. “Thank you for listening and lots of love, and I’ll see you all soon.”
“Never Gonna Give You Up” was part of Astley’s debut solo album, Whenever You Need Somebody released in his early 20s. The song reached no. 1 on over 20 international charts upon release, per The Hollywood Reporter. As of publishing, the music video has over 1.6 billion views on YouTube.
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It experienced a new popularity in the 2000s, when getting “Rick-Rolled,” a bait-and-switch online move, was born from the song. The meme included tricking people online into expecting one thing from a URL and then being brought to the song or the video for “Never Gonna Give You Up,” hence the term Rick-Rolled.
Astley, who has been vocal about the song’s viral popularity, commented on the meme craze in 2016 and told PEOPLE about the first time he was Rick-Rolled.
“A friend of mine Rick-Rolled me a couple of times, and I didn’t really know what he was doing. I just thought he was being an idiot,” the singer said at the time. “I just kept thinking, ‘What is this idiot doing? This is just not amusing. I don’t really know what’s going on.’ So we eventually got on the phone and he explained it to me.”
Added Astley: “To be honest, I still didn’t really get it. It took a few weeks for me to grasp.”
However, he only sees the meme as a “positive thing.”
“I don’t think you can really have any bad thoughts about an Internet prank that turned your song into a global moment,” said Astley.
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He also consulted his daughter, who was a teen at the time, on navigating the new trend. “She was saying, ‘Don’t sweat it. It has nothing to do with you,’” he told PEOPLE in January 2025.
“And I’m like, ‘How can it have nothing to do with me?’ And she said, ‘Just leave it where it is. Don’t try to embrace it and try funny things with it,'” continued Astley.
Less than 1,000 songs have reached the Billion Streams club on Spotify. Astley’s hit joins “Love Story” by Taylor Swift, “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers, “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel and “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire, among other tracks.
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