Over the past several months, astute music fans and journalists have been developing awareness of an unknown male act known as Fancy.
It began at September’s iHeartRadio Music Festival. There, Big Machine Label Group’s Scott Borchetta told media outlets (including Billboard) that Taylor Swift, who had just recently confirmed her transition to pop, was not to remain the sole mainstream act under his auspices. As part of a 2013 deal with Dr. Luke, Borchetta identified a promising male act known as Fancy. The plan was to groom the artist for a 2015 launch.
Scooter Braun, who works with names like Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, was involved from a management standpoint.
As the holiday season approached, Republic’s radio promotions team issued a “Jingle Blitz” sampler spotlighting certain tracks that fall under its umbrella. A song entitled “Goodbye,” credited to Fancy, was included.
In late December and early January, music fans located a YouTube stream of the song (which has since been unlisted). The video’s description advertised several social media handles, but none had notable, if any, traction. The video itself had only a few hundred views.
The tautly produced track, which featured an infectious beat and an engaging vocal, certainly sounded like something that would find an audience at mainstream radio. It definitely sounded like it could be the breakthrough hit Borchetta teased at the iHeart festival.
On Sunday, Scott Borchetta removed any doubt. He essentially confirmed that the “Goodbye” discovered by fans weeks ago is the one he and his team are working to launch into the market.
Across a pair of Tweets, the record industry maven introduced a YouTube stream of the song (now at a new link) as one of his favorites.
Seemingly attempting to present “Goodbye” as a new, random song he happened to discover (rather than one on his label that was first posted and teased many weeks ago), Borchetta added that he was “freaking out” about the song. He asked his nearly 54,000 followers to check out “Goodbye.”
The revamped YouTube video, embedded below, plays up the mystery surrounding the new act. It credits the YouTube author as “Who is Fancy” rather than Fancy and includes the hashtag “#whoisfancy” in its description.