What You Need to Know About Teen Viral Phenom Rebecca Black

What You Need to Know About Teen Viral Phenom Rebecca Black
She didn't write her massive hit 'Friday' -- and she's taking criticism of her in stride


The tween pop singer Rebecca Black granted her first interviews with the press today, one week after her massive viral hit "Friday" hit the internet. So far Black has talked to the Daily Beast and appeared on Good Morning America, and later today she will be a guest on Ryan Seacrest's nationally syndicated radio show.

This is what we have learned:

She didn't write "Friday." According to Black, the producers at the vanity record label Ark Music Factory offered her a choice of two pre-written songs. "The other song was about adult love – I haven’t experienced that yet," she told the Daily Beast. Her mother says that she thought the lyrics were pretty dumb, but chose not to interfere.

She is understandably rattled by the negative response to "Friday." Black told Good Morning America that the worst thing she's read so far is a comment saying "I hope you cut yourself and I hope you get an eating disorder so you'll look pretty, and I hope you go cut and die." She says that the cyberbullying made her cry and question why she made the video, but now she is just rolling with it.

She is actually a pretty decent singer. Good Morning America asked Black to sing a few lines from "The Star Spangled Banner" and she did fine, or at least as well as your average 13-year-old theater enthusiast. Black is very modest about her voice, telling GMA that she believes she has talent, but isn't the best or worst singer out there. She told the Daily Beast that her plans for the future include recording an acoustic version of "Friday" without any vocal processing to show off her natural voice.

She is a Belieber. Like most 13-year-old American girls, Rebecca Black is a huge Justin Bieber fan and took her appearance on GMA as an opportunity to tell Bieber that her fondest wish would be to record a duet with him. "Just thinking of it gives me butterflies," she said, adorably.

She is a total sweetheart. While it would be perfectly reasonable for any 13-year-old to emerge from a week of sudden fame and intense, often cruel scrutiny with a total nervous breakdown, Black comes off as a well-adjusted, happy and grateful kid. According to the Daily Beast, Black intends to donate a large chunk of her profits from the sales of "Friday" on iTunes – where it is currently at Number 31 and is said to have sold over two million copies since Tuesday – to school arts programs and relief efforts in Japan.

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