Daddy (Psy song)

"Daddy" was initially slated to be released in August 2014, as a follow-up to his Snoop Dogg collaboration "Hangover".[1] On August 8, Psy reportedly recently began shooting a music video for his upcoming single in Seoul and Busan with director Cho Soo-hyun, who had previously worked with him on the videos for "Gangnam Style" and "Gentleman". Several residents in Busan posted to their social media accounts upon seeing Psy "making monkey-like dance moves for an hour" with an electric sign prop that read "Psy in the sky" with a slew of skyscrapers in the background.[2] After no news regarding its release in August, some fans expected that Psy would unveil his upcoming track at YG's Power World Tour concert in Beijing on October 19, 2014; however, he did not perform any new songs.[3] On December 1, an official from YG Entertainment told media outlets that the release of "Daddy" was not overturned as some had thought, rather Psy would release the single along with a new album when it is in a more "satisfactory state".[4]

In July 2015, Psy's agency announced that new music was to be released "very soon", following series of delays due to Psy wanting to obtain "a new direction that attracts wider audiences and to find his own style."[5] It was not until November 25 where YG confirmed that Psy's 7th studio-album Chiljip Psy-da, along with its lead single "Daddy", would be released on December 1, 2015 at midnight local time.[6] Both "Daddy" and the album was released at the same time as planned, and the song was made available for digital download and streaming on platforms in several different countries.

"Daddy" received mostly unfavorable reviews from music critics. The Huffington Post said "The mildly disturbing imagery subsides as the main character gets older, but the video doesn't get any less weird," referring to the "creepy shots of Psy's face."[7] Rolling Stone described the single as "another slab of brash synth-heavy K-pop and a video filled with outlandish costume changes and dance moves" and with other adjectives such as "ridiculous" and "silly."[8] Jess Denham from The Independent called it dreadful and the dancing terrible, with bizarrely catchy lyrics "about owing your body to your dad".[9] Mike Fenn of Forbes felt that the song seemed to garner less attention than the video, rather people tune in to see the video's "bizarre imagery" instead of the song itself.[8] On a less critical note, Newsweek's Dipo Faloyin wrote that "To suggest the video has a specific theme would be to limit the unique world in which Psy's genius exists."[10]

In South Korea, "Daddy" debuted at number one on the Gaon Digital Chart in the chart issue dated November 29 – December 5, 2015, selling 296,737 digital units and was the week's best-selling song.[11][12] The following week, "Daddy" fell one place to number 2 on the digital chart, and sold an additional 133,257 digital downloads.[13][14] The song was the top-selling and second most-streamed song in December, accumulating 580,551 units in digital downloads in addition to receiving 22,247,939 streams.[15][16] As of September 2016, the song has garnered 1,109,395 units in digital downloads in the country.[17]

In the United States, "Daddy" peaked at number 97 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his fourth single to enter the chart and the fifth K-pop song to do so overall.[18] It sold 4,000 digital downloads in the country and received 3 million streams in its first week of release. On the US Dance/Electronic Songs chart, the song debuted at number six, making it Psy's fourth top-ten entry.[19] It was ranked the fifth best-selling international song on the 2016 year-end issue of the US World Digital Song Sales chart.[20] In Canada, the song peaked at number 36 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100.[21] The song additionally peaked at number 20 in Finland[22] and number 103 in Australia.[23]

The music video for "Daddy" was uploaded to Psy's official YouTube channel in conjunction with the release of the single. In the video, Psy debuts a new dance move, which involves flinging his legs and arms in alternate directions. He appears in multiple guises, including a baby, student, dancer, and a balding middle-aged man.[24] Forbes' Mike Fenn highlighted the video for its strange and bizarre imagery, where he wrote it "consists of everything from adults' faces superimposed onto dancing infants to elderly men screaming through town while riding on motor scooters."[25] Within 24 hours of its release, the video received nearly 6 million views on YouTube.[26] The music video surpassed 200 million views in October 2016,[27] and became his third video to surpass 500 million views on the platform in June 2020.[28]

The song was also featured in the episode "The Unincludeds" in the thirteenth season of American Dad!, which was broadcast on April 11, 2016. In June of the same year, Ubisoft announced that "Daddy" would be one of the 40 new tracks that will be added to the soundtrack of the video game Just Dance 2017.[29]

Due to its success on digital platforms, "Daddy" received the Song of the Year – December award at the 5th Gaon Chart Music Awards on February 17, 2016.[30] The song also achieved a triple crown (three wins) on the South Korean music programs Inkigayo and M Countdown.