Gotye

Gotye (2007)

Gotye [ ˈɡɔːti.eɪ ] (born May 21, 1980 in Bruges , Flanders ; actually Wouter Andre "Wally" De Backer ) is a Belgian - Australian singer-songwriter and drummer from Melbourne .

Life

De Backer was born in Belgium. When he was two years old, his family moved with him to Australia. He was registered for school under the English variant of his name, Walter . De Backer has been in a relationship with the Australian folk singer Tash Parker for many years.

Together with some of his classmates, including the current bass player in his live shows, Lucas Taranto, he founded the band Downstares in 1998 . When this band split up, De Backer concentrated on his solo project, for which he later used the name Gotye . According to De Backer's explanation, this is an English transcription of the first name Gauthier , which in turn represents the French variant of his Dutch maiden name Wouter (German / English Walter ).

Together with Kris Schroeder and Tim Heath, he is involved in the indie pop trio The Basics from Melbourne. His first single Learnalilgivinanlovin from the CD Like Drawing Blood was released in August 2006. In Germany, he performed at the Reeperbahn Festival in 2008 , but toured several times with The Basics. The group has released numerous albums and EPS, most recently in 2019.

In July 2011 he recorded the song Somebody That I Used to Know with the New Zealand singer Kimbra . It reached number 1 in the Australian and Belgian charts and was able to rise to the top of the charts in 24 other countries. The accompanying album Making Mirrors also reached number 1 in Australia in August 2011 and was successful in many other countries. After that, he had no plans to continue with his solo career.

In 2016 Gotye founded the “ Ondioline Orchestra” in order to preserve the musical legacy of Jean-Jacques Perrey , a French pioneer of electronic music. In 2017 the band released the song Cigale , which is dedicated to Perrey. Gotye also founded the record label Forgotten Futures in 2017. Its first publication was Jean-Jacques Perrey et son Ondioline , a compilation of rare and previously unpublished recordings by Perrey.

Awards and honors

Gotye won the ARIA Music Awards 2011 in the categories "Single of the Year", "Best Pop Release" and "Best Male Artist". In addition, he was nominated in the category regional nomination for "Asia and Pacific" at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2011 and won that same category in 2012. At the Echos 2012 , the song Somebody That I Used to Know won the "Song of the Year "echo. At the ARIA Music Awards 2012 Gotye won a total of five awards (three awards for his album Making Mirrors - Album of the Year, Best Pop Release, Best Cover Artist (together with his father Frank de Backer)) as well as Best Male Artist and Best Australian Live Act. At the 2013 Grammy Awards, he won the categories "Best Alternative Album", "Record of the Year" and "Best Pop Duo / Group Performance". The latter two Grammys he received together with Kimbra for the single Somebody That I Used to Know .

Discography

Albums

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)								Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	BE F	BE W	AU
2003	Board face	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	First published: February 2003
2006	Like Drawing Blood	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	AU13 platinum (14 weeks)AU	First published: July 2, 2006
2011	Making mirrors	DE3 gold (25 weeks)DE	AT6th gold (17 weeks)AT	CH10 (31 weeks) CH	UK4th gold (26 weeks)UK	US6th gold (46 weeks)US	BE F3 platinum (57 weeks)BE F	BE W6 (53 weeks) BE W	AU1 × 3 Triple platinum (44 weeks)AU	First published: August 2011 Sales: +2,000,000

EPs

• 2009: Heart's a Mess

More albums

• 2007: Mixed Blood ( cover album ; first release: July 2007)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)								Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	BE F	BE W	AU
2010	Eyes Wide Open Making Mirrors	-	-	-	-	US96 (1 week) US	BE F33 (4 weeks) BE F	-	-	First published: November 5, 2010
2011	Somebody That I Used to Know Making Mirrors	DE1 × 3 Triple platinum (61 weeks)DE	AT1 × 2 Double platinum (37 weeks)AT	CH2 × 3 Triple platinum (58 weeks)CH	UK1 × 3 Triple platinum (63 weeks)UK	US1 × 8 Eight times platinum (59 weeks)US	BE F1 × 4 Quadruple platinum (61 weeks)BE F	BE W1 (70 weeks) BE W	AU1 × 11 Eleven times platinum (50 weeks)AU	First published: July 24th, 2011 feat. Kimbra ; Sales: + 10,000,000

More singles

• 2006: Learnalilgivinanlovin
• 2007: Hearts a Mess (Like Drawing Blood; first published 2007)
• 2009: Coming Back

With "The Basics"

Studio albums

• 2003: Get Back
• 2007: Stand Out / Fit In
• 2009: Keep Your Friends Close
• 2015: The Age of Entitlement
• 2019: BASIC

EPs

• 2005: For Girls Like You
• 2007: Lookin 'Over My Shoulder
• 2009: Like a Brother
• 2010: Wait for You
• 2014: The Lucky Country

Singles

• 2014: Call It Rhythm and Blues / Baby, Let Me In

Live albums

• 2010: / ðəˈbæzɪtʃ /
• 2013: My Brain's Off (And I Like It)
• 2017: In the Rude!

Compilations

• 2012: Ingredients
• 2013: Leftovers

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Denmark 2012: for the album Making Mirrors  Finland 2012: for the single Somebody That I Used to Know  Italy 2012: for the album Making Mirrors  Canada 2012: for the album Making Mirrors

Platinum record  France 2012: for the album Making Mirrors  Sweden 2012: for the single Somebody That I Used to Know  Spain 2013: for the single Somebody That I Used to Know 2 × platinum record  Italy 2012: for the single Somebody That I Used to Know  Poland 2012: for the album Making Mirrors

3 × platinum record  Denmark 2012: for the single Somebody That I Used to Know 4 × platinum record  Denmark 2012: for the streaming Somebody That I Used to Know 5 × platinum record  New Zealand 2011: for the single Somebody That I Used to Know

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Australia (ARIA)	-	15 × platinum15th	1,050,000	aria.com.au
Belgium (BEA)	-	5 × platinum5	150,000	ultratop.be
Denmark (IFPI)	gold1	7 × platinum7th	100,000	ifpi.dk
Germany (BVMI)	gold1	3 × platinum3	1,050,000	musikindustrie.de
Finland (IFPI)	gold1	-	6,774	ifpi.fi
France (SNEP)	-	platinum1	100,000	infodisc.fr snepmusique.com
Italy (FIMI)	gold1	2 × platinum2	90,000	fimi.it
Canada (MC)	gold1	-	40,000	musiccanada.com
New Zealand (RMNZ)	-	5 × platinum5	75,000	radioscope.net.nz ( Memento from June 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
Austria (IFPI)	gold1	2 × platinum2	70,000	ifpi.at
Poland (ZPAV)	-	2 × platinum2	40,000	bestsellery.zpav.pl
Sweden (IFPI)	-	platinum1	40,000	sverigetopplistan.se
Switzerland (IFPI)	-	3 × platinum3	90,000	hitparade.ch
Spain (Promusicae)	-	platinum1	40,000	elportaldemusica.es
United States (RIAA)	gold1	8 × platinum8th	8,500,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	gold1	3 × platinum3	1,900,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	8 × gold8th	58 × platinum58

literature

• At the top with eyes wide open for Goyte (sic!), Iain Shedden, The Australian, August 18, 2011 (English).

swell

1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 60Sox (accessed January 15, 2012)  
2. ↑ ^{a b c} What became of Gotye? . Yahoo News, October 29, 2019, accessed March 30, 2020
3. ↑ Will There Really Be “No New Gotye Music”? . Musicfeeds (Australia), October 20, 2014, accessed March 30, 2020
4. ↑ Options Irwin Chusid: Playlist from November 16, 2016 Options . Retrieved March 30, 2020
5. ↑ Gotye Makes His Return with an Ondioline. Sorry, a what? . Broadsheet (Australia), January 12, 2018, accessed March 30, 2020
6. ^ Jean-Jacques Perrey et son Ondioline . Bandcamp , accessed March 30, 2020
7. ↑ Winners of the 2011 Aria Awards announced. (No longer available online.) November 27, 2011, archived from the original on January 14, 2012 ; Retrieved January 2, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US BEF BEW AU
9. ↑ [1]
10. ↑ Interview with Wouter De Backer
11. ↑ Gavin Ryan: ARIA Albums: Soundwave Acts Debut At 1 and 2 . August 22, 2015. Accessed November 30, 2019.
12. ↑ ARIA Chart Watch # 553 . auspOp. November 30, 2019. Retrieved November 30, 2019.

Web links

Commons : Gotye  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Wally De Backer in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Gotye website
• German translation of Somebody That I Used To Know by hr3
• Analysis of the song "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye on bonedo.de