“Gangnam Style” star Psy’s new music video had received more than 44 million views on YouTube by Monday, re-writing the video-sharing site’s records for single-day hits.<\/p>\n
The dance video to “Gentleman”, the South Korean singer’s long-awaited follow up to “Gangnam Style, was only posted on YouTube at 9:00pm (1200 GMT) on Saturday.<\/p>\n
In the first 24 hours, it racked up around 20 million hits, destroying the previous record for single-day views of 8.0 million, set by Canadian heartthrob Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend” video in May 2012.<\/p>\n
Now that record looks set to be stretched again, with the view count 36 hours after release standing at 44.5 million.<\/p>\n
The video shows Psy, wearing his signature sunglasses, dancing at various locations in and around Seoul including a high-end clothing store, restaurant, swimming pool and a library.<\/p>\n
The story line features the singer teasing and playing practical jokes on women, such as pulling their chairs away as they are about to sit or untying a woman’s bikini top at a swimming pool, before meeting his match.<\/p>\n
It was the video of “Gangnam Style”, and in particular Psy’s signature horse-riding dance, that pushed him to global stardom last year after it was posted on YouTube and turned into a viral sensation.<\/p>\n
A satire on the luxury lifestyle of Seoul’s upscale Gangnam district, it has become the most-watched YouTube video of all time, registering more than 1.5 billion views since it debuted last July.<\/p>\n
“Gentleman” was ranked in the top 10 songs on iTunes stores in a number of countries Monday, including France, Canada, New Zealand, Denmark and Sweden. It also topped the chart in Finland.<\/p>\n
“The song isn’t all that great but let’s face it. The video is actually hilarious,” wrote one YouTube commentator.<\/p>\n