Pharrell Williams unveils unexpected inspiration behind smash hit 'Happy'

Pharrell Williams revealed the creative process behind the Despicable Me 2 hit song, Happy.

In a recent interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1 for his upcoming biographical film Piece by Piece, the rapper and producer shared how he came up with his massive hit track in 2013.

While mentioning his collaboration with Robin Thicke and Daft Punk, the Neptunes co-founder said, "When I was about 40, that's when 'Get Lucky,' 'Blurred Lines,' 'Happy,' all of that was the same year."

He went on to say, "And these were all songs that were more commissions than they were just like, I woke up one day and decided I'm going to write about X, Y and Z."

Recalling the making of the soundtrack of Despicable Me 2, Williams confessed that he ran out of ideas and ended up asking himself, "How do you make a song?"

"It was only until you were out of ideas and you asked yourself a rhetorical question and you came back with a sarcastic answer. And that's what 'Happy' was," Williams continued.

"How do you make a song about a person that's so happy that nothing can bring them down? And I sarcastically answered it and put music to it, and that sarcasm became the song. And that broke me," the 51-year-old multihyphenate explained.

It is pertinent to mention that Happy broke the records at the time of its release and with 13.9 million sold copies it became one of the best-selling songs in history.