Michael Jackson’s "They Don’t Care About Us" Hits One Billion Views on YouTube

Music icon Michael Jackson‘s “They Don’t Care About Us” music video has hit a major milestone by surpassing one billion views on YouTube. 

The protest anthem was originally released in 1996 as a single off the King of Pop’s ninth studio album, "HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I" from the year prior. 

Filmed in Brazil, the accompanying visual was one of two directed by Spike Lee for the song and features Jackson marching through the streets with a massive drum line of Brazilian kids and teenagers. 

The second clip was filmed in a prison, interposed with footage of the Ku Klux Klan, the Rodney King beating, the Chinese protests in Tiananmen Square, and more to spotlight human rights abuses around the world.

On the track, the superstar declares, “Skinhead, dead head/ Everybody’s gone bad/ Situation aggravation/ Everybody, allegation/ In the suite, on the news/ Everybody, dog food/ Bang bang, shot dead/ Everybody’s gone mad/ All I wanna say is that they don’t really care about us/ All I wanna say is that they don’t really care about us,”. 

The making of the video was rife with controversy, as the Brazilian government attempted to ban Jackson from filming in both Rio de Janeiro and the Historic Center of the city of Salvador, known as the Pelourinho. 

The music video is the late legend’s second to join the elite club on YouTube, following the iconic visual for the Thriller-era No. 1 smash “Billie Jean.”