Rebecca Black was born on 21June 1997, in Anaheim Hills, California. She is the daughter of John Jeffery Black and Georgina Marquez Kelly, both veterinarians, and is of Spanish, Italian, Polish, and English descent. An honor student, Black studied dance, auditioned for school shows, attended music summer camps, and began singing publicly in 2008 after joining the patriotic group Celebration USA.
Her mother paid $4,000 for Ark Music to produce her daughter’s music video while the Blacks retained ownership of the master. The single, “Friday”, written entirely by Ark, was released on YouTube and iTunes. The song’s video was uploaded to YouTube on February 10, 2011, and received approximately 1,000 views in the first month.
As of March 22, 2011, first-week sales of her digital single were estimated to be around 40,000 by Billboard. Black appeared on the March 22, 2011 episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, during which she performed the single and discussed the negative reaction to it. The song has peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 and the New Zealand Singles Chart at number 58 and 33, respectively.
She teamed up with Funny or Die on April Fools Day (the site was renamed Friday or Die) for a series of videos, including one which addresses the controversy about the driving kids in her music video, stating “We so excited about safety.” She has also stated that she is a fan of Justin Bieber, and expressed interest in performing a duet with him.