5 artists to watch at Coachella 2024 who went viral on TikTok
Flashback: Watch Oasis, Foo Fighters, Beck and more at 2002 Coachella
In 2019, NBC Palm Springs sat down with then-Desert Sun reporter Bruce Fessier to discuss the first 2002 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festivals.
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Love it or hate it, TikTok has become an integral part of the music industry.
So it should come as no surprise that several artists who gained success on the popular social media platform will be taking the stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival this year.
One of TikTok’s key features is “sounds,” which allows its users to make their own videos to audio soundbites from songs, TV shows and films, and even other viral TikToks. This has become a tool for artists to promote their work and a way many users have discovered new music.
TikTok users, which can include the artists themselves, will post videos singing and/or dancing to songs or just use them as a soundtrack. They will often use the catchiest part, typically the chorus.
Here are some of the festival performers that you may recognize from your TikTok scrolling:
Kenya Grace
Kenya Grace, a British singer and songwriter, went viral for her drum ‘n’ bass song “Strangers.” It topped the United Kingdom’s singles chart, making her the second woman to do so with a song she performed, wrote and produced herself. The first was Kate Bush.
You’ve definitely heard “Strangers” on TikTok, with the lyrics, “And it goes like this. We’ll get in your car and you’ll lean to kiss me. We’ll talk for hours and lie on the backseat. And then one random night when everything changes, you won’t reply and we’ll go back to strangers.” TikTokers have used a 26-second clip of it for videos one million times.
Grace also recently released her album, “The After Taste,” which features “Strangers” and 8 other songs. She is performing at the Mojave tent from 3:05 to 3:45 p.m. on Saturday during Weekend 1.
Thuy
Thuy, a Vietnamese-American singer and songwriter, has created music that resonates with millions of TikTok users. She may have had the most viral songs on the app than anyone else on this list. Her most famous is a sped-up version of “Girls Like Me Don’t Cry,” which has been in a whopping 9.1 million videos.
The pop and R&B song is sweet, with memorable lyrics that are going to get stuck in your head like “Tell me that you’ll keep me safe and never let this fade away. Girls like me don’t cry. Girls like me pretend that we don’t cry.” Which is fitting, because she’s inspired by iconic singers like Mariah Carey, Britney Spears and Brandy.
Other popular songs from her include “Universe,” “All Night Long” and “I Got It.” She has a song called “Hair Down” releasing on April 12, just in time for her Coachella Weekend 1 performance on Saturday at the Gobi tent from 4:20 to 5 p.m.
Saint Levant
Saint Levant, a Palestinian-French-Algerian-Serbian rapper, has effectively used social media apps like TikTok to his advantage in order to boost his music. He’s known for blending Arabic, French and English, and has garnered millions of views for his songs.
His most popular song is “Very Few Friends,” in which he raps “I wanna take you to Paris and spoil you. I wanna go to Marseille and enjoy you. I want those guys in your DMs to talk to themselves and then tell all their friends that they know you.” Its currently been used in 26.4 thousand TikTok videos.
But the rapper’s latest release, “Deira,” is somewhat of a departure from his usual music, as Saint Levant sings while featured artist MC Abdul is the one who raps. It honors his heritage in both music and lyrics, which translated from Arabic mean “We left our city behind. Heartbreaking exile. Say hello to Jericho. And the old city for me. Oh, you traveling bird. On this generous land. They can’t take what’s inside us.”
It’s a beautiful song, and the live version Saint Levant has posted on his social media pages even more so. It will be interesting to see if and how he performs it during his Saturday performance at Coachella, which will be at the Gobi tent from 9:15 to 9:55 p.m. during Weekend 1.
YG Marley
YG Marley’s debut song “Praise Jah in the Moonlight,” has been a hit on the charts and social media. But what else could you expect from the grandson of Bob Marley and son of Lauryn Hill?
The song includes samples from Bob Marley & The Wailers’ song “Crisis” and was co-written with Hill. YG Marley performed it during Hill’s tour, which resulted in fans asking for it to be released. If you’ve been on TikTok, you’ve heard it with the lyrics “These roads of flames are catching on fire. Showed you I loved you. You called me a liar. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.” It’s been used in over a million videos on TikTok.
But interestingly, “Praise Jah in the Moonlight” is Marley’s only released song at the moment. It seems likely that he’ll perform unreleased music and/or covers for his set during Weekend 1, which will be at the Coachella stage from 4:05 to 4:55 p.m. on Sunday.
Jungle
Jungle, an English dance act, has been around for over a decade. But many of their newest listeners likely discovered the group when their song “Back on 74” started making the rounds on TikTok and some people were replicating the song’s creative choreography.
If TikTok is known for anything, it is viral dances.
Visuals are an important part of Jungle, and “Back on 74″s choreography is fun and beautiful to watch. The song itself is enjoyable too, with the lyrics “Ooh, where did it go, back on 74 (when I noticed you). Call this place my home. Never gonna cry anymore. Where did it all.”
You can catch Jungle’s performance at the Outdoor Theatre from 8:40 to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday during Coachella Weekend 1.
Ani Gasparyan covers the western Coachella Valley cities of Desert Hot Springs and Cathedral City. Reach her at ani.gasparyan@desertsun.com.
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