Amir Yass Explains the Real Meaning Behind Gia Giudice’s ‘Waking Up in the Morning’ ‘RHONJ’ TikTok [Exclusive]
Gia Giudice’s sad “Waking Up in the Morning” song she sang as a child on The Real Housewives of New Jersey recently went viral on TikTok thanks to former Hollywood publicist Amir Yass.
Giudice learned that the song was unearthed on TikTok after her friends saw that actor Will Smith shared it on social media. “I had a bunch of friends sending me text messages saying Will Smith was singing your song on Instagram and when I saw it, I couldn’t believe it,” she told E! News. “I love Will Smith and I thought it was really cool that he did that. Maybe I’ll do one of his songs in return.”
And while Giudice was stunned that Smith shared the song, he didn’t start the trend. In fact, no one really knew why suddenly, 10 years later, Yass reposted the video clip of Giudice, which garnered more than 270 million views from the #WakingUpInTheMorning hashtag.
The Gia Giudice ‘RHONJ’ revival came from the 2020 election, Amir Yass says
During an exclusive interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Yass chuckled when he thought of why the song came to mind for him. Because the original idea stemmed from the 2020 election.
“When Biden got elected, I was sitting there watching the inauguration and thinking, wow, like, what is [Donald] Trump feeling like?” Yass pondered. “And I’ve never really sympathized with him at all. I’m not anywhere supportive of Trump.”
“But there was a moment where I thought, wait, what is he feeling? Then I just happened to be on Twitter. And I saw the video from like 13 years ago,” Yass continued. “And it just said, you know, ‘waking up in the morning … da da da.’ And I was like, wait, this is so Trump! He’s waking up in the morning and they’re doing the little transfer. And Biden was moving in and the whole situation and he’s on the helicopter flying away and I’m thinking like he must be listening to that.”
Amir was shocked when the Gia Giudice video went viral
Without thinking too much about it, Yass posted the clip of Giudice singing her sad song and a caption about the election.
“So I posted it and it said, you know, on January 20th, this is what Trump is doing,” he recalled. “Nobody really did anything with it. It maybe got like 5,000 likes or something. It wasn’t a big thing. So about a month later, I posted just the video with no caption, no explanation.”
“And I literally woke up the next morning and I had probably 500 messages, like text messages from friends and family. And I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ They’re like, ‘Oh my God. Will Smith just did your video and your name’s under it.’ And obviously, I didn’t sing it, so I understand that. But it was just bizarre that I brought that back to life and it was just such a crazy ride from there,” he said.
Amir connected with Gia after the TikTok went viral
Yass connected with Giudice at one point, but only briefly. “She just did it,” he recalled about sharing the TikTok. “And I commented and I reposted it. But no, there wasn’t a lot of communication. And I think that obviously, it is her song. I get it, I didn’t make it.”
“But what I thought was annoying was that Bravo kept using it without tagging me. And on TikTok, all the celebrities, if you look on every celebrity page, even Will Smith, you can see my name. But Bravo decided to repost it without giving me any credit and tagged her. And I understand that. Listen, it’s her song, but I brought it to life. I mean, there are so many people that messaged me and said, I’m rewatching Real Housewives of New Jersey because I want to see that episode.”
He wasn’t necessarily looking to make any money off of the TikTok but instead hoped for just a little credit for the trend. “And I just wanted people to have fun. I didn’t want money. People were like, ‘Oh, you’re so money hungry.’ It’s not about the money, it’s about the credit. I feel like so many people would save the video and then post it as if they did it. So, yeah it really upset me,” he said.
Yass has plenty of other hilarious celebrity takes on his TikTok and Instagram.
