The 20-year-old singer is ready to move past her "Friday" viral video fame after a stint on Fox's reality competition series.
Rebecca Black is moving on.
The 20-year-old singer showed off her pipes last week as a contender on Fox's The Four: Battle for Stardom seven years after rising to viral video infamy. Today, Black's polarizing "Friday" music video, which prompted a firestorm of online criticism for the then-13-year-old, has more than 121 million views on YouTube.
"You're Rebecca Black!" judge Meghan Trainor gushed when she stepped out on stage to compete. "Dude! Oh, my God, I'm fangirling so hard."
Though Black didn't make it through to earn a seat on the show, she's grateful for the opportunity to show the world she's grown up.
"For so long I was really scared of those kinds of shows and I never thought I would do them," she tells ET. "I went through such a roller coaster after 'Friday' and there were just -- I really was not ready to do something like that until The Four came into my life."
Asked whether she'd like to collaborate with Trainor in the future, Black doesn't miss a beat.
"Yes! Girl," she exclaims. "Let's do it! That'd be so much fun, are you kidding? She's such an amazing songwriter."
Black opened up about the "overwhelming" criticism she faced back in 2011 and how it has impacted her "complicated" relationship with social media today.
"With my situation, it wasn’t just like, 'Wow, everyone’s watching you.' It was, 'Everyone’s watching you and there’s a good chunk of people that really don’t like you or are telling you to do something else,'" she says, calling the comments "ruthless."
"I still see it happen to people, but it was, like, just kinda like the wild, wild West back then, and people just said whatever they wanted," she continues. "There’s this idea that the person behind it isn’t going to see what you actually say or comment, but the chances are, they do. We all look at our social media, and it’s impossible to look at a comment and be completely emotionless about it."
Speaking out through her own YouTube channel has been a cathartic experience for Black, opening up about everything from her daily life to favorite products.
"That really helped me feel like I had a safe place," she says. "It’s tough. Social media for everyone is tough because you want to look your best, but you also want to be real. I go through that as we all do. Especially over the last week, it’s been unbelievable every day to wake up and see so much support."
Shortly after The Four aired, Black took to YouTube to debut her newest music video, "Satellite."
"It is such a special song to me because it was the first behind-the-scenes moment before having anything like The Four where I was really able to just let go of all of those 'Friday' insecurities and just be in the studio and be myself as an artist," she says. "I just adore that song."
See Black's full interview via ET Live on YouTube.
The Four continues its second season Thursdays on Fox.
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