Although they were originally sung by seamen aboard merchant ships and fishing ships in the 1400s, sea shanties are currently seeing a surprising resurgence – on TikTok. So how did sea shanty TikTok come to be such a big thing? And who is Nathan Evans, the folk singer at the centre of it all?
What's happening with sea shanty TikTok?
Scottish postman and folk singer Nathan Evans began the viral trend with a cover of 'Wellerman’, a 19th-century New Zealand whaler song.
Since Evans's sea shanty TikTok went viral, other singers have been adding to it.
Singers clearly weren't enough. Fiddles were then added.
Then the trend took on a new style. 'Wellerman' even got its own club remix.
TikTok is usually the home of lip-syncs, dance challenges and comedy sketches, but is now the epicentre of a sea shanty renaissance.
The phenomenon is sweeping the rest of the internet too now, thanks to its TikTok success. Google Trends tweeted on 12 January that 'sea shanties' as a search term had reached its peak in Google's history.
This isn't the first time sea shanties have entered the public consciousness: in 2019, the story of the Fisherman’s Friends, a sea shanty crew from Port Isaac in Cornwall, was adapted for film.
The film, starring Daniel Mays and James Purefoy, tells the true story of the Fisherman's Friends, who were signed by Universal Records and achieved chart success with their renditions of sea shanties.
You can watch Fisherman’s Friends on Amazon Prime, YouTube or Google Play.
- Our guide to 'Wellerman', the sea shanty that went viral on TikTok
- When were sea shanties invented?
- You can find the lyrics to many of your favourite sea shanties here
