Rebecca Black Is Back: See The Singer's Photo Diary From Her DJ Set

She's come a long way from "Friday," with the recent release of her pop debut EP Rebecca Black Was Here.

June 25, 2021

It’s been a decade since “Friday” — and while society is coming to terms with the way we’ve unfairly treated young, mostly female celebrities — the world is ripe for a Rebecca Black renaissance. The 24-year-old has come a long way since the infamous 2011 YouTube video that people loved to hate for its lyrics, its earworm quality, and its cringe factor, but so has reception of the song, which has more recently been recast as highly influential.

“The attention it received embodied the values that would define popular culture more with every passing year: entropy, cringe, and the ambient blend of pleasure and confusion that’s often described as post-ironic,” writes The Atlantic. In 2019, it was named no.3 of Rolling Stone’s 50 most important musical moments of the decade.

For the 10th anniversary of “Friday,” in February, Black released a remix of the song featuring Dorian Electra, Big Freedia and 3OH!3, alongside quietly recording a goosebump-inducing cover of Smash Mouth’s “All Star” on Cameo. On June 16, she released her hyper-poppy and very fun EP Rebecca Black Was Here, featuring “Girlfriend,” a song celebrating Black’s queerness.

Below, Black gives us a behind the scenes look at her DJ set to celebrate the release of her new music. Party on.

Exciting night ahead, finally getting to celebrate the release of my new project Rebecca Black Was Here! It’s felt like a long time coming…after the year we have all been through, it felt crazy to think I’d be able to be in a room with so many of the people I adore, vaccinated and safely. Here we are glamming with Nick Lennon in the green room!Jade DeRose

Finishing touches. Nick and Gregg Lennon have both been hugely important pieces to the visuals for this entire project. We have created every look together and its been so exciting to explore each song and era and keep challenging ourselves to new creative worlds — it only felt right to celebrate the release with one of our most fun, severe glam looks yet.Jade DeRose

All ready to go. I’m playing my first live DJ set in over a year and a half at this party. I couldn’t feel more excited. Let’s do this!Jade DeRose

Brooke Llewellyn, my stylist, pulled this insane vinyl, strappy Kaimin look that made everything come together.Jade DeRose

Played Rebecca Black Was Here for the first time along with some of my other favorite tracks right now. Being on stage again for the first time! In over a year felt INCREDIBLE, and it was so special to do it with all of my friends/co-creators/team dancing along. It’s almost a relief to play these songs “live” for the first time and to get to see the way the audience moves and responds to it — normally I would play something before it is released once or twice, but of course, this time there was none of that!Jade DeRose

Familiar faces I love to see. Made me so happy to see everyone letting loose and dancing together. One of my favorite things to do is go out and dance, and the energy was definitely there this night. Jade DeRose

It really meant so much to me to see so many people show up and support the thing I have been so invested in, more than anything I ever have really. I feel so grateful for such incredible people in my life and to get to share such a moment together.Jade DeRose

Hope to do it again soon. I’ll never take a hug from someone I love for granted, ever ever again.Jade DeRose

Rebecca Black Was Here North American Tour Dates:

Thursday, January 13, 2022 - Washington, DC @ Union Stage+
Friday, January 14, 2022 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom+
Saturday, January 15, 2022 - Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground+
Tuesday, January 18, 2022 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall+
Thursday, January 20, 2022 - San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop - Popscene+
Friday, January 21, 2022 - Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour+

+Supporting artist Alice Longyu Gao