A made-in-Canada movie about Zach Sobiech has sparked renewed interest in a song he recorded before he died of cancer in 2013.
According to Nielsen Music/MRC Data, “Clouds” had a 2,711 percent jump in downloads following the premiere of Clouds on streaming service Disney+ last Friday. The song was downloaded about 6,500 times over the weekend.
Sobiech, who had osteosarcoma (a rare form of bone cancer), was told in 2012 that he had less than a year to live. He wrote and recorded “Clouds” and posted it on YouTube.
"I fell down, down, down into this dark and lonely hole / There was no one there to care about me anymore," he sang. "And I needed a way to climb and grab a hold of the edge.”
The video garnered more than 3 million views by the time Sobiech died in May 2013, shortly after his 18th birthday, and has since surpassed 15 million views. The song went to No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit No. 14 in Canada.
In 2013, a long list of celebrities – including Colbie Caillat, Jason Mraz, Sara Bareilles, Andy Grammer, Lumineers, Jason Derulo, Passenger and Phillip Phillips – paid tribute to Sobiech by lip-syncing “Clouds” in a video shared on YouTube.
Clouds, directed by Justin Baldoni and starring Fin Argus as Sobiech, was shot in Montreal last fall.