“Somebody That I Used To Know” by Gotye featuring Kimbra

"Somebody That I Used to Know" is the breakup song that swallowed 2011 whole. Gotye, the Australian singer-songwriter born Wally de Backer, wrote, produced and sang it with New Zealand's Kimbra, and it served as the second single from his third album, Making Mirrors. He recorded it at his folks' place on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, which makes its eventual reach all the more absurd.

It's a mid-tempo ballad built from found sounds: a sample of Luiz Bonfá's instrumental "Seville", from a 1967 album, plus a plinking xylophone melody lifted from a 1961 LP, A Child's Introduction to the Instruments of the Orchestra, that's based on "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep". Over that hushed backdrop, Gotye lays out the wreckage of a relationship from his side, and then Kimbra storms in to tell hers. Lucas Taranto adds bass and François Tétaz mixed it, and the whole thing swells from a murmur to a howl.

It topped the charts in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US, plus 25 other official charts, and by September 2012 its sales had passed 13 million. At the 55th Grammy Awards it won Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, and at home it cleaned up at the ARIA Awards. In 2025 Triple J listeners voted it 10th among the greatest Australian songs, and Doechii sampled it for "Anxiety".

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.