Sam Horowitz had a pretty spectacular year in 2013. After a video of his November 2012 bar mitzvah dance went viral, he became an overnight celebrity.
The 14-year-old student of Parish Episcopal School appeared on a slew of talk shows, including Good Morning America and Ellen, and he was a special guest at Mercedez-Benz Fashion Week in New York. "Fashion is a very big part of my life," Horowitz says. "I’ve always kind of been the stylist in my house. I style my whole family."
YouTube Rewind 2013 has already reached viral status, raking in more than 2.7 million views in less than 12 hours.
The Daily Beast picked up on Horowitz's style sense and asked the young man to pick eight essential Hanukkah looks. To cap off 2013, he was invited to Los Angeles to star in the annual YouTube Rewind for the year's best viral videos.
"Everyone I've gotten to work with has been so nice and amazing," he says. "The best part of all of this has been getting to perform for people."
The five-minute video features such memorable YouTube themes as Prancercise, What Does The Fox Say, Harlem Shake and Kid President. Horowitz makes his mark on the video at 2:27, as he teaches Bart Baker the choreography for his famous bar mitzvah dance. YouTube Rewind 2013 has already reached viral status, raking in more than 2.7 million views in less than 12 hours.
YouTube’s annual rewind video has grown exponentially popular since 2010, when it garnered a pedestrian 1.3 million. In 2011, that number jumped to 5.7 million. By 2012, it was 129 million.
As big of a year as 2013 was for Horowitz, he's got even bigger plans for 2014. "I am working on another dance right now, which is super exciting," he says. "The one thing I can say is this is going to be even bigger and better than the last one. So get ready."
Sam Horowitz's Broadway-worthy dance routine wowed at his bar mitzvah.
Crystal Charity Ball 2024 chairman Cheryl Joyner and Richard Joyner.
Photo by Ashley Gongora