14 DAY TRIAL // Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber are going head to head battling for the coveted honor of having the most popular video on YouTube. Lady Gaga is the reigning champion with her video for Bad Romance, but Bieber’s legions of teenage fans have helped him usurp the throne. His video for “Baby ft. Ludacris” now has over 246 million views, about 700,000 more than Lady Gaga’s.
The battle heated up yesterday when Bieber’s musical prowess helped him get within sight of the main prize, the number one video on YouTube. Understandably, YouTube was very excited about the development and tweeted: “Well, look at that: @justinbieber passes @ladygaga for Most Viewed Video of All Time http://youtu.be/kffacxfA7G4 = 245,074,968 views.”
But it wasn’t going to be that easy for the teenage heartthrob, Lady Gaga fought back recouping the top spot. YouTube blasé comment indicated that maybe the video site was losing interest in the battle: “And @ladygaga fights back! http://youtu.be/qrO4YZeyl0I = 245,092,155 views...”
If you’ve ever watched a Hollywood action flick, this scenario will sound familiar. The hero always lands the first punch, only to get pushed back and kicked around for five more minutes in a heart-stopping fight sequence. Luckily, the good guy always wins in the end in Hollywood and that was the case this time around as well.
Bieber, or rather his fans, mustered all his forces and managed to grab the top spot again and for good. By that time though, YouTube had completely lost interest and moved on to the next shiny thing. The site’s Most Viewed is yet to be updated and still shows Bad Romance as the most popular web video of all time. Considering the attention span of some YouTube users, who find three-minute videos excruciatingly long, perhaps this is fitting.