One of the fi rst Internet
celebrities was Matt Harding.
Who? some of you will say.
And yet the site www.Where
the Hell Is Matt.com is
internationally recognisable.
Linedancer Magazine looks
of today.
The Internet is a wonderful thing. It allows
everyday people to communicate, create
their own pages and share their opinions,
profi les and emotions with others, opening
the world wide and making the planet a
lot more accessible. Hundreds of different
folks from many cultures and backgrounds
talk amongst themselves on a daily basis
and try to understand what their world’s
neighbours are about, in an effort of unity
and removing the barriers of prejudice.
Such a man is Matt Harding.
A 31 year old man (according to his site’s
description “a deadbeat from Connecticut”),
Matt, in February 2003, quit his job in
Australia to wander round the world for
a bit. Some months into his travels, and
while being photographed in Hanoi, it
was suggested that he ought to do a little
dance to be recorded. That was the start of
something which eventually would become
huge and internationally recognised. Matt
says: “A couple years later, someone found
the video online and passed it to someone
else, who passed it to someone else, and
so on. Now Matt is quasi-famous as “That
guy who dances on the internet. No, not
that guy. The other one. No, not him
either. I’ll send you the link. It’s funny.”
In 2007, Matt expanded on his original
idea and because of the numerous emails
he was getting started inviting the people
who had written to him to dance with him.
Some seven months later, the results are
astounding and his video has been seen
more than 7 million times on Youtube idea that caught like wildfi re. Indeed Matt
since its original posting in June at the time Harding is famous and in our eyes justly so.
of writing this article. You have to watch his video to understand
what a pure joy the four minutes it runs are.
Today, Matt lives in Seattle, Washington Adults, children from all continents, culture
with his girlfriend and their dog. Matt has and background dancing with Matt is a
not had a job since the day Stride called stirring and precious spectacle. Ultimately,
him up and he admits that though he does dancing with total strangers and just sharing
not mind working, he “doesn’t much care a moment in time is what makes the video
The giant Stride Gum company came across for having to show up at the same place so wonderful to watch. If you’ve never
the video and offered Matt another chance every day.” seen Matt in action you are missing a
wonderful treat.
So one funny little dance and many travel
hours later, one of the fi rst Internet You can see Matt’s video on onlinedancer
celebrities has the following many a star this month Youtube aswell as on
would envy. And all because of a simple www.wherethehellismatt.com.
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Matt's dance.id 1 29/8/08, 11:00:21 am
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