Three years ago, TikTok was renamed Musical.ly to become the best tool for musicians to reach and expand their audiences. Many of this year’s biggest hits—”Drivers License,” “Up,” “Essence,” “Heat Waves,” “Stay”—owe a decent chunk of their success to their virality on the app, while many artists’ origin stories are now entwined with TikTok. Below are some notable artists to have appeared on the app by 2021.
Olivia Rodrigo
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TikTok began featuring a song called “Torches by Disney Stars” in January. It was popular with TikTok users.The heart and soul of the love triangle.Making memes, and singing along to the epic bridge. Olivia Rodrigo departs 2021 11 months later Billions of streams, seven Grammy nominations and as TIME’s 2021 Entertainers Award. “Drivers License” was far from Rodrigo’s only hit on the app: her song “Good 4 U,” when mashed with Paramore’s “Misery Business,” became the soundtrack for millennials flashing backTo their pop-punk roots.
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PinkPantheress
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TIME’s third-best albumPinkPantheress won the award for best British artist of the Year. A 20-year-old British musician who uses old-school garage and house samples to make dreamy tracks, PinkPantheress is her favorite. She has a million fans on TikTok, and often uses the platform as a testing ground, “to assess if music is good enough to put out or not,” she The New York Times Times. The coy was her biggest success on the app “Just For Me.”
CKay
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While CKay’s “Love Nwantiti” was a bona fide hit in the Nigerian singer-songwriter’s home country last year, it became one of the The biggest African songs of pop music history TikTok is partly responsible for this increase in fall views. The app has 1.5 billion users who have viewed videos hashtagged #lovenwantiti, and many people are dancing to the music. RegularTikToker Tracy Joseph created the original version. Although CKay was not given credit immediately on the app for his work, it took a while as the slow-down and mistagged version that gained global traction had been the first to be released. “I felt robbed at first,” CKay Rolling Stone. “Certain countries enjoyed the music a little too much and started to claim it was theirs. I appreciate the love, but, yeah, I had to go on TikTok again and set things straight.”
Magdalena Bay
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There are few accounts on TikTok quite like Magdalena Bay’s, which combines lo-fi absurdism, cheerful nihilism, earnest Information about the music business, and, The words of lead singer Mica Tenenbaum, “abstract sci-fi cybercult symbology-ridden laser light show masterpiece[s]”. A slowed down version of their song “Killshot” went viral at the top of this year. They released their first album. Mercurial World in October–and it’s both readymade for clip harvesting (with its immaculate synths and danceable choruses) and an excellent body of work when listened all the way through.
Walker Hayes
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While the Alabaman singer-songwriter has been grinding in Nashville’s country music industry for a decade and a half, Walker Hayes became a recognizable name across the country this year for “Fancy Like,” which celebrates low-budget country fun. Users posted videos of themselves dancing to the song on flatbed trucks, around campfires and in Applebee’s parking lots. Applebee’s even paid tribute to the song by Reintroducing the Oreo Cookie Shake to its menu. “Fancy Like” is now a fully-fledged country music behemoth: it’s been number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for all but three weeks since July 24, and it’s still sitting atop the chart now.
Måneskin
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The Italian glam rockers Måneskin won the 2021 Eurovision contest with the song “‘Zitti e buoni.” But it was a different song of theirs, a 2017 cover of the 1967 song “Beggin’” by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons,” that broke out on TikTok this summer, soundtracking over 10 million videos. Måneskin’s hard-charging rendition won over fans in Europe and beyond, The second most-listened to global songOf the year. The band’s subsequent single, “MAMMAMIA,” also thrived on the platform.
Tai Verdes
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A beacon of relentless positivity, the California singer-songwriter-rapper first scored big on TikTok last year with “Stuck in the Middle” while working at a Verizon store. The song’s viral success led to a record deal. This year he proved he was far from a one-hit wonder with “A-O-K”: more than a million cheerful videos have been filmed to the song.
Ivan Corjeno
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There wasn’t a more romantic song on TikTok this year than “Está Dañada.” Created by Cornejo, a A dreamy song written by a teenage Mexican-American singer and songwriter. More than one million people used the site to upload pictures of them or their partners. “All the trends on TikTok have really helped build up my music,” Cornejo told Billboard last month. “Está Dañada” marked only the second time a Regional Mexican hit has ever landed on the Billboard Hot 100.
Amaarae
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Amaarae, a Ghanaian-American singer and songwriter received praises for her debut album. The Angel You Don’t Know, which skillfully combined Nigerian alté, R&B and Southern rap. In September, Amaarae released a remix of her song “SAD GIRLZ LUV MONEY” that featured Kali Uchis and a new third verse. That new part of the song immediately caught fire on TikTok, with dancers around the world showing off their smooth footwork to accompany Amaarae’s breathy vocals. Amaarae’s first Hot 100 hit was achieved when the song reached #1 on TikTok U.S. Top Tracks charts.
Jax
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The singer-songwriter born Jackie Miskanic doesn’t go viral from dancing or high-production videos: she most commonly films herself sitting in front of a piano, singing her own songs or parodies of classics. (She often re-writes songs from another perspective, such as when she sang “Stacy’s Mom” from the song’s namesake’s perspective.) Jax’s success on TikTok led her to Atlantic signed a record-breaking deal in January; these days, it’s rare for one of her videos to clock under a million views.
