"Astronaut in the Ocean" is a song by Australian rapper

Masked Wolf Harry Michael (born February 12, 1991), known professionally as Masked Wolf, is an Australian rapper from Sydney, New South Wales. He is best known for his song "Astronaut in the Ocean", which became a sleeper hit in 2021, peaking at number 4 ...

. It was originally released in June 2019 before being re-released through

Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the 1 ...

on 27 October 2020. Following its re-release, the song achieved chart success, peaking at number 4 on the Australian

ARIA Charts The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

and number 6 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It was released as the lead single from his mixtape ''Astronomical''. The song was produced by

Tyron Hapi Tyron Hapi is an Australian record producer and songwriter from Melbourne, Australia. Hapi is best known for producing the song " Astronaut in the Ocean" by fellow Australian rapper Masked Wolf Harry Michael (born February 12, 1991), kno ...

. In September 2021, the song was added to the

APRA billion streams list The APRA billion streams list or The 1,000,000,000 list was established in 2019 by APRA AMCOS (Australasian Performing Right Association and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society) to acknowledge Australasian songwriters whose works have ...

for its achievement. At the 2021 ARIA Music Awards, the song was nominated for Song of the Year, Best Hip Hop Release and Breakthrough Artist - Release. Masked Wolf was nominated for Best Artist and Daniele Cernera was nominated for Best Video for their work on this release.

Background

The song was first released through Teamwrk Records on 7 June 2019, achieving minor success within Australia and becoming Masked Wolf's most popular single at the time. However, in late 2020, the track started to gain attention on social media by being used in a number of

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videos. He was signed by Elektra Records in early 2021, and the song was re-released on 6 January 2021. By that time, the song had already reached more than 32 million streams on

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and was steadily gaining more traction through social media and clips on

. In February 2021, it surpassed the 100 million Spotify streams mark, becoming Teamwrk Records' most streamed track. The song was also included in the playlist "The Shazam Predictions 2021", compiled by Shazam and

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. About the lyrics, the rapper said, "'Astronaut In The Ocean' touches on mental depression, how I was stuck in a place of anxiety and feeling low."

Remixes

The song has received many remixes, including that of Brazilian DJ

Alok Alok is an Indian given name of Sanskrit origin. People with the given name Alok * Alok (DJ) (born 1991), Brazilian DJ and music producer *Alok Bhargava (born 1954), Indian-American econometrician * Alok R. Chaturvedi, Professor of Information Syst ...

. The official remix features American rappers G-Eazy and DDG, and was released on May 7, 2021. In a press statement, Masked Wolf said:

I've always wanted to do a remix of Astro, but it had to be right. The song means a lot to me so I really thought about who I wanted on it. As soon as I heard DDG on " Moonwalking", I was like, "I need this guy." He's so talented and I knew he would rip a crazy verse. I'm a huge fan of G-Eazy, and, sonically, he fits the song perfectly – he just has that swag about him, but can also talk about real things too.

Music video

Astronaut In The Ocean" is a music video directed by Daniele Cernera, who also served as the director of photography, and 1st AC Sophian Ferey. The video was produced b
Cerne Studios
based in Sydney, Australia and filmed at their studio in Sydney in under half a day. The team at Cerne Studios used retro projection on a cyclorama to create the visual effects of space. The lighting design included an overhead softbox for backlight and ambient light, as well as RGB tubes for added color saturation. For the second set, a black backdrop and warm spotlight were used to create a smoky, ethereal look. The CGI effects were added by 180 Creative in Melbourne during the post-production process. The video premiered on October 27, 2020. The video received widespread recognition for its creative and high-quality production value, with over 350 million views on YouTube and 2+ billion plays on digital platforms. It was nominated for Aria Awards 2021 for Best Video. The simplicity of the visuals, along with the effective execution by the team at Cerne Studios, played a significant role in the video's success. Despite the limited budget and timeline, the team was able to create a visually striking and impactful video that resonated with audiences https://www.cernestudios.com/work/masked-wolf-astronaut-in-the-ocean

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 2019 songs 2019 singles 2021 singles Masked Wolf songs Internet memes introduced in 2021 Elektra Records singles Number-one singles in Romania Number-one singles in Russia Songs about depression Song recordings produced by Tyron Hapi Songs written by Tyron Hapi Songs written by Masked Wolf Rap rock songs