Somebody That I Used to Know

Gotye, born Wouter De Backer, wrote and recorded "Somebody That I Used to Know" at his parents' house on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. The track features New Zealand singer Kimbra, whose verse shifts the perspective to the other side of a messy breakup. Gotye sampled the guitar from Luiz Bonfá's "Seville" and a xylophone melody from a 1961 educational LP, building a sparse, mid-tempo arrangement that leaves plenty of space for the raw vocal exchanges.

Released on July 5, 2011 as the second single from Making Mirrors, the song exploded globally. It topped charts in over 25 countries, including eight weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video, directed by Natasha Pincus, shows Gotye and Kimbra painted in body-art style against a white background. As of late 2024, it has over 2.3 billion views on YouTube and 2.3 billion streams on Spotify, making it one of the best-selling digital singles ever.

At the 55th Grammy Awards, it won Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. It also topped Triple J's Hottest 100 in 2011 and swept the ARIA Awards with wins for Best Pop Release, Best Video, Engineer of the Year, and Producer of the Year. In 2025, rapper Doechii sampled the song on her track "Anxiety," earning several Grammy nominations and introducing the song to a new generation.[edit]