Of all the strangeness that has already transpired in 2021, the most pleasant and least expected has been the explosion of sea shanties on TikTok. If you are not familiar with TikTok, it is a social networking platform that is used to make and share short-form videos. Recently, it has been awash in sea shanties. 

Why have sea shanties become so popular on TikTok? It seems to have all begun with Scottish postman and aspiring musician, Nathan Evanss. (Evans is his last name, but he uses the name  Evanss online.)  During the pandemic, the 26-year-old began posting songs to TikTok, mostly covers of Scottish folk tunes. He was modestly popular attracting around 10,000 views per song. One viewer requested a sea shanty “Leave Her Johnny, Leave Her” which remarkably got over a million views. Evanss decided that sea shanties were worth looking into.

His next shanty, “The Scotsman” attracted 2.8 million viewers. Then things went a bit crazy when he posted “The Wellerman” in December that has now been watched 4.3m times. 

The numbers do not quite capture the craze, however. TikTok is collaborative, including a “duet” feature in which users can create a video side-by-side with an existing one, allowing different singers to harmonize. Soon people were posting their own versions of “The Wellerman” singing and playing along with Evanns. 

The Washington Post notes that the success of “The Wellerman” officially launched ShantyTok, a corner of TikTok reserved for sea shanties.

The hashtag #seashanty now has more than 72 million views. It includes classic renditions of these ancient songs; people explaining the history of the genre; a trend of turning popular songs like “WAP” into shanties; and at least one club banger “Wellerman” remix. 

What is “The Wellerman”? The BBC explains that the song is believed to be about a Sydney whaling company called Weller Bros, whose employees and ships were called Wellermen. Its lyrics describe a supply ship bringing “sugar and tea and rum” to the whaling crew in the seas off New Zealand.

Google Trends even tweeted on Tuesday that “sea shanties” was being searched for more than it ever had in search engine’s history.

Here is the video that started it all.

The Wellerman – nthnevnss TikTok

Here is a short video about the reborn popularity of sea shanties on TikTOk and other platforms.

Sea Shanty TikTok is TAKING OVER in 2021

Thanks to Nate Spilman, Irwin Bryan, and Gary Buckhannon for contributing to this post.