Guess Which Aussie Music Video Just Cracked 1 Billion Views On YouTube?

It’s a good thing that the video for ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ became wildly popular, because making it was nothing short of torture.

Over three long days in 2011, Wally de Backer and his guest vocalist Kimbra stood naked in a studio, being painted piece-by-piece in order to capture the unique stop motion elements of the film clip.

“It was physically challenging — the shoot was an endurance sport in itself — and also emotionally difficult,” director Natasha Pincus told MTV in 2012. “Every second of screen time that featured stop motion involved 12 separate set ups.

“We would paint a dab of paint on a body, then step away, clear set, then we would set Gotye or Kimbra to be in line with the image taken previously, then they’d hold their breath as we took two photographs, then we’d do another dab of paint.”

It was a process they went through thousands of times in total. “From memory, Gotye’s painting and stop motion took about six hours to film, and Kimbra’s took maybe eight hours. In all, that day took 26 hours to film,” Pincus continued.

But it was worth it in the end. The video was an instant hit — inspiring a wave of cover versions — and has now joined an exclusive group of music videos that have cracked the 1 billion view mark on YouTube. At time of writing, ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ is sitting pretty at 1,001,081,466 — not bad for three days of nakedness.

The only other Australian members of the 1 Billion Views Club are Sia with ‘Chandelier‘ (sitting pretty on 1.7 billion views) and Iggy Azalea, who guest features on Ariana Grande’s track ‘Problem’ (1.1 billion).

The most watched YouTube music vid of all time goes to Luis Fonzi & Daddy Yankee’s with ‘Despacito‘ (4.7 billion views) followed by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth with ‘See You Again’ (3.3 billion) and then Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ (3 billion).

But where Psy has earned well over $10 million for the views from ‘Gangnam Style’, Gotye won’t be getting anything. The Melbourne singer made the decision years ago to not include ads on his YouTube page, meaning he’s missed out on a potential fortune.

“I’m not interested in selling my music,” Gotye told News Limited last year.

“That’s the reason I don’t put ads on my You Tube channel, which seems strange to people in today’s climate, but that is a decision you can make. I’m like that with all my music. Ads are calling for our attention anywhere we turn in the world.

“If you can do something you care about and other people maybe care about and keep it out of that world that feels like it’s all about ‘hey buy this stuff’ then that’s a good thing.”

Watch the behind-the-scenes footage of ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ below.