Belgian singer accused of ‘buying’ 1m YouTube views

Belgian pop singer and self-styled ‘soul diva’ Natalia has sparked controversy after her latest video generated over one million views on YouTube overnight. The video for Boom went from 187,000 to 1,250,000 views in a matter of hours, prompting sneers from fellow Belgian artists. "This music business, it's all fake," Leuven singer-songwriter Tom Helsen wrote on his Facebook page. “Nowadays, you can buy YouTube views. I did not know it existed, but that’s how it goes. Since there is no such thing as bad publicity (…) here you have a good example of how it all works." For only €60 you can quickly buy 100,000 YouTube views via websites via YouTubeBoost and YTview. "Everything takes place in so-called 'click farms' in low-wage countries such as India or Bangladesh,” says social media expert Clo Willaerts, “where employees do nothing but spend hours viewing the same movie or hitting a ‘like’ button.” Natalia’s entourage denies that the singer has bought YouTube views. "We do not engage in such practices," says Patrick Guns of Universal Music Belgium. "I didn’t even know it was possible." The video in question had been viewed 187,000 times in the space of one month then, from one day to the next, shot up to 1.3 million views. Natalia rose to fame in Flanders after coming second in the Flemish version of ‘Pop Idol’. She has collaborated with the likes of Anastacia, Lionel Richie and En Vogue.