LONDON • A 19th century sea shack has made its manner into the British high 40 as conventional sailors’ songs are having fun with a brand new wave of recognition, because of the favored brief video app TikTok.
The music Wellerman carried out by The Longest Johns, a band from Bristol within the west of England, is now at quantity 37 on the official chart, which takes into consideration streaming music. The music is at No. 1 on Spotify’s viral 50, which incorporates shares on social media, in the US and Britain and at No. 2 globally.
Wellerman is believed to have been written in New Zealand within the mid-19th century and tells the story of sailors preventing an epic battle with a whale they’re searching.
The standard style has garnered consideration in the course of the coronavirus lockdowns, significantly because of a Scottish postman, Nathan Evans, who posted his rendition of Wellerman on TikTok final yr.
The video has been seen greater than eight million instances and sparked a worldwide development referred to as “ShantyTok.”
Music stars took benefit of the development and carried out their very own covers.
Pop singers Gary Barlow and Ronan Keating sang it collectively, whereas songwriter Andrew Lloyd Webber made a video on TikTok of himself taking part in keyboard accompaniment.
Evans attributes the music’s recognition to the confinement, saying that the shacks had been initially sung to “deliver everybody collectively” and this strikes a chord when individuals are remoted. “Particularly on this second the place everyone seems to be caught at residence, they’re working remotely, they will come collectively and that brings everybody collectively.”
Evans signed a file take care of Polydor and launched his personal model of Wellerman as a single final week.
FRANCE MEDIA AGENCY
