Psy’s ‘Gentleman’ reaches 51 million views and counting

One of the biggest questions regarding Psy on everyone’s mind is whether or not his newly released “Gentleman” could be the next “Gangnam Style,” which has surpassed 1.5 billion views on YouTube.

The music video for the Korean rap star’s follow-up single has already broken the record for the most views in 24 hours, exceeding 20 million hits, more than double the previous record of 8 million held by Justin Bieber. 

As of Monday afternoon, the music video for “Gentleman” had reached an unprecedented 51 million YouTube views in less than two days, with approximately 672,000 “likes” to 107,000 “dislikes.”

“And once again. Why can’t we just have fun with music anymore like this man. Psy does it again,” American hip-hop star T-Pain posted on Psy’s Twitter page.

Before the release of “Gentleman,” it had been reported that Psy struggled with the decision of whether or not his follow-up song should be all in English, hoping to appeal to a more international audience. Psy later announced to the public that he would keep his Korean lyrics, and although “Gentleman” does have more English lyrics than “Gangnam Style,” the track is still predominately in Korean.

The digital single was released in 119 nations on Friday and went on to top the iTunes Top Singles chart in 16 countries including Finland, Belgium, Cambodia and Malaysia. The track sits at No. 24 on the U.S. iTunes Top Singles chart as of Monday afternoon.

“Gentleman” also made it on to the U.K. Singles Top 100 chart this week at No. 61, the exact same position that “Gangnam Style” landed upon its debut last year before taking the No. 1 spot on Sept. 30. The achievement gave Psy the honor of becoming the first Korean to ever reign at the top of the U.K. music chart.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)