Every celebration needs a theme song. But why did many flock to Miley?
Americans stayed up past their bedtimes to watch Obama pronounce Osama dead on live TV. After, since we were made wide-awake by the announcement, we promptly flooded the nation’s streets in celebration, chanting, singing, and toasting to America’s future.
Instead of a patriotic tune like the Star-Spangled Banner, or even country crooner Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.”, YouTube users clicked on the first song they could think of – one that fit our immediate sentiments of celebration and patriotism: Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” Seriously.
(More on TIME.com: See photos of bin Laden’s Pakistan hideout)
Users clicked on the YouTube video hundreds of thousands of times. And Tuesday, as the Osama hangover wears off, the comments section of Miley’s video is left as a paper trail of the Sunday evening excitement. The first comment kept the news factual and to-the-point, stating: “OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD. party in da usa guyz.”
But in the nearly 1500 comments that followed, YouTube users have sounded off with cheers, jeers, political diatribes (“I don’t think that partying on the death of bin Laden is a good thing to do, terroristic organizations are still there and keep on existing.”) and even offered their own parodies of the tune (“So I put my hands up, Osama’s gone, America saves the day! Yeaahh, its a party in the U.S.A!”). One commenter noted how quickly the “likes” of the video were increasing.
(More on TIME.com: See photos of people celebrating bin Laden’s death)
While the rest of the song’s lyrics have little to do with patriotism at-large, the poppy pompousness of the song reflected our good ol’ American sentiments over bin Laden’s death. Or maybe it was just the first song that came to revelers’ minds.
Regardless, NewsFeed is proud that we didn’t hear Miley sung at Ground Zero late Sunday night. Nope, the New York City revelers were belting out a tune we were actually not ashamed to sing along with: Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.”
(More on TIME.com: See the top 10 songs with silly lyrics)
If you wish to relive the patriotic moment that millions experienced Sunday night (and possibly cause irreparable damage to your eardrums), watch below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M11SvDtPBhA&w=450]