Noah Kahan | The power of authenticity…and TikTok

Headlining the Osheaga festival next August, Noah Kahan, singer-songwriter and star of TikTok, draws crowds wherever he goes thanks to his catchy indie-folk. Deciphering a phenomenon, just before the artist’s visit to the Bell Center this weekend.

The beginnings and the web

As with many artists of his generation, it was the internet that first allowed Noah Kahan to reach his audience, then to achieve the success he enjoys today. Having become one of the most popular emerging artists of his generation, he attracts 37 million monthly listeners on Spotify. His megasuccess Stick Season (we’ll come back to that) has accumulated nearly 800 million plays on the platform. A Vermont native, now 27, Kahan was one of those millennial artists who posted videos of themselves on YouTube and Soundcloud to launch their careers, offering cover songs. Although many had never heard of him until recently, Kahan made his real debut at the age of 19, opening for Milky Chance on tour. Noah Kahan is prolific: in 2018, he released a mini-album (Hurt Somebody), then, in 2019, a first album (Busyhead), followed in 2020 by another mini-album (Cape Elizabeth) and a second album in 2021 (I Was/I Am). The four projects, with a pop flavor, were not very successful, although one of the singles from the first disc temporarily slipped into the Billboard rankings (the piece Hurt Somebody).

The power of TikTok

And then there was TikTok. It was ultimately thanks to a series of videos on the popular platform that Noah Kahan began his rise to fame. Excerpts from his song Stick Season, even before it was released, went viral in 2020. Almost two years later, in 2022, he released the famous piece, broadly marking his turn towards folk. The song’s music video currently has 16 million views on YouTube. The release, shortly afterwards, of the album also entitled Stick Season finally ensured Noah Kahan’s accession to popular culture for good. After a first deluxe edition of the album, the artist marked the occasion even more by releasing another version including collaborations with several popular artists, covering songs from the record. So, Post Malone (on the song Dial Drunkone of the public’s most beloved), Hozier, Lizzy McAlpine, Sam Fender, Brandi Carlile, Gracie Abrams and Kacey Musgraves, artists all reaching a different audience, helped to further highlight the arrival of Noah Kahan in pop culture.

La carte de l’authenticité

Le pouvoir de la viralité a fait de nombreux inconnus des mégavedettes ces dernières années. Les réseaux sociaux ont en grande partie mené Noah Kahan là où il est. Ce qui lui a concrètement permis de se démarquer ? Son côté authentique, sans artifice. Il présente un folk flirtant avec la pop et le country, souvent épuré. Ses textes abordent tant les problèmes de santé mentale (dont son anxiété) que ses défauts. Les commentaires sous ses vidéos YouTube, qui encensent ses paroles, en témoignent. « J’entends beaucoup de choses insignifiantes à la radio, puis cette chanson est arrivée, […] music that comes from the heart”, we can for example read under the video clip of Stick Season. His arrival in the public eye also coincides with the success of Zach Bryan, whose country-folk is reminiscent of Kahan’s offering. The latter has often said that his album represented the music he had always wanted to make, music that resembles him. After a tour in 2022 and 2023, he immediately embarked on a new series of concerts, the tour We’ll All Be Here Foreverwhich will take him across North America and will allow a stop in Montreal (there are only a few tickets left on the floor at the time of writing his lines).

Extract of Dial Drunk (with Post Malone)

Selections and invitations

The rise has not stopped since the publication of Stick Season. Noah Kahan earned a place among the finalists in the Best New Artist category at the Grammy Awards last February, his first appearance at the ceremony. Last year, the magazine TIME included it in his Top 100 rising personalities. The popularity of the song Stick Season has not dried up either. Reaching number one on the UK and Australian overall charts, the song also reached number ten on the charts. Billboard, at the beginning of the year. Guest on all talk show sets such Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night with Seth Meyers Or The Kelly Clarkson Showthe artist continues to make his mark.

Always more collaborations

While performing in Toronto earlier this month, Noah Kahan was joined on stage by Canadian star Shawn Mendes, a surprise appearance that delighted the audience and confirmed the explosion of the songwriter’s success -American performer, with whom everyone wants to associate. He was also invited by Olivia Rodrigo to join her on stage recently, at Madison Square Garden in New York. The duo performed… Stick Season, a piece that Rodrigo covered last year. Kahan joined the band Tiny Habits to reinterpret the song lacy for an episode of the much-loved series Live Lounge on BBC radio (live performances in the studio, to which many renowned artists are invited). Wherever he goes, Noah Kahan leaves few people indifferent.

At the Bell Center this Saturday, then at the Osheaga festival on August 2