"Daddy" is a song by South Korean musician Psy, featuring CL of 2NE1. It was originally slated for release in 2014; however, the release of the song was pushed back to November 30, 2015, in order to make further improvements. It was made available to digital outlets through YG Entertainment as the lead single of his sixth studio album Chiljip Psy-da (2015). It samples hooks derived from will.i.am's 2007 song "I Got It from My Mama". An accompanying music video for "Daddy" was posted to his YouTube channel in conjunction with the single's release, and became his third music video to surpass 500 million views on the platform in June 2020.
The song was commercially successful in South Korea, it became his third song to reach number one on the Gaon Digital Chart since its establishment in 2010, following "Gangnam Style" (2012) and "Gentleman" (2013). It additionally topped the World Digital Song Sales and entered the charts in six other territories. It was ranked the best-performing song in the country in December 2015, and received the Song of the Year – December award at the 5th Gaon Chart Music Awards. As of September 2016, the song has garnered over 1,100,000 digital downloads.
History and release
"Daddy" was initially slated to be released in August 2014, as a follow-up to his Snoop Dogg collaboration "Hangover". On August 8, Psy reportedly recently began shooting a music video for his upcoming single in Seoul and Busan with director Cho Soo-hyun, who had previously worked with him on the videos for "Gangnam Style" and "Gentleman". Several residents in Busan posted to their social media accounts upon seeing Psy "making monkey-like dance moves for an hour" with an electric sign prop that read "Psy in the sky" with a slew of skyscrapers in the background. After no news regarding its release in August, some fans expected that Psy would unveil his upcoming track at YG's Power World Tour concert in Beijing on October 19, 2014; however, he did not perform any new songs. On December 1, an official from YG Entertainment told media outlets that the release of "Daddy" was not overturned as some had thought, rather Psy would release the single along with a new album when it is in a more "satisfactory state".
In July 2015, Psy's agency announced that new music was to be released "very soon", following series of delays due to Psy wanting to obtain "a new direction that attracts wider audiences and to find his own style." It was not until November 25 where YG confirmed that Psy's 7th studio-album Chiljip Psy-da, along with its lead single "Daddy", would be released on December 1, 2015 at midnight local time. Both "Daddy" and the album was released at the same time as planned, and the song was made available for digital download and streaming on platforms in several different countries.
Critical reception
"Daddy" received mostly unfavorable reviews from music critics. The Huffington Post said "The mildly disturbing imagery subsides as the main character gets older, but the video doesn't get any less weird," referring to the "creepy shots of Psy's face." Rolling Stone described the single as "another slab of brash synth-heavy K-pop and a video filled with outlandish costume changes and dance moves" and with other adjectives such as "ridiculous" and "silly." Jess Denham from The Independent called it dreadful and the dancing terrible, with bizarrely catchy lyrics "about owing your body to your dad". Mike Fenn of Forbes felt that the song seemed to garner less attention than the video, rather people tune in to see the video's "bizarre imagery" instead of the song itself. On a less critical note, Newsweeks Dipo Faloyin wrote that "To suggest the video has a specific theme would be to limit the unique world in which Psy's genius exists."
Commercial performance
In South Korea, "Daddy" debuted at number one on the Gaon Digital Chart in the chart issue dated November 29 – December 5, 2015, selling 296,737 digital units and was the week's best-selling song. The following week, "Daddy" fell one place to number 2 on the digital chart, and sold an additional 133,257 digital downloads. The song was the top-selling and second most-streamed song in December, accumulating 580,551 units in digital downloads in addition to receiving 22,247,939 streams. As of September 2016, the song has garnered 1,109,395 units in digital downloads in the country.