The day after the shocking death of music icon David Bowie (UK) on 10 January, his recordings attracted a staggering 51 million views on the video-hosting platform VEVO, earning the music legend a record for the Most views for an act on VEVO in 24 hours.
Receiving an incredible 11.1 million views, the achievement was led by “Lazarus” – the second single from his 26th studio album Blackstar (2016) which was released just days before his passing.
The track opens with the haunting lyrics "Look up here, I'm in heaven / I've got scars that can't be seen". As a result the song has been interpreted as a final goodbye to his fans following a private 18-month battle with cancer.
As of 14 January 2016, "Lazarus" had been watched 19,086,946 times on VEVO.
Significantly, Bowie has smashed the previous record of 36 million views that was achieved by Adele the day her chart-topping single “Hello” premiered on 23 October 2015.
Bowie's VEVO views were boosted by a whopping 5,198% on 11 January 2016 when compared to his average views for the week previously.
