Oh, baby! Justin Bieber and Ludacris‘ music video for the former tween star’s breakout single “Baby” has hit 3 billion views on YouTube.
The “Baby” video came out in 2010 and effectively introduced the world to the young heartthrob with a skater haircut, high-pitched voice and smooth dance moves who would go on to help define pop music for the next decade. The visual features a 15-year-old Bieber wooing a girl with an epic dance-off at a bowling alley, joined by Ludacris, whose rap verse about a teen romance remains wholly iconic.
The year it was released, “Baby” became the most-watched video in YouTube history at the time, surpassing Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” with 246 million views. It was also the most-disliked video on the platform until 2018, when that year’s YouTube Rewind amassed more dislikes than “Baby” in just one week.
In 2020, Bieber celebrated the 10-year anniversary of his career breakthrough with a nostalgic Instagram post, sharing a throwback to the decade-old cover art of his multiplatinum single. The song served as the lead single of his debut album, My World 2.0 and debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, trumping the successes of his earlier singles such as “One Time” and “One Less Lonely Girl.”
“Baby” isn’t the first of Bieber’s music videos to join the exclusive 3 billions club, with 2015’s “Sorry” currently approaching 3.7 billion. In 2016, the “Yummy” singer became the first artist to crack 10 billion combined views on Vevo.
Watch the “Baby” music video above.
