"gimmie all ur luv"
The sudden fame of artist Hemlocke Springs and what comes next.
What happens in the aftermath of a viral TikTok song?
For Hemlocke Springs, Isimeme Naomi Udu (24), the weeks after the release of her song “girlfriend” at the beginning of November were filled with a wave of calls, texts, and emails from fans and record labels alike.
It’s hard to believe that just a year ago, Udu, originally from Concord, North Carolina, was enrolled in a master’s program to study Medical Informatics at Dartmouth. Without any musical training and only two released songs on Spotify, she has about 1.5 million monthly listeners and the two tracks have garnered over 17 million streams.
An unusual high lilting voice floating over pop drum beats and synths, Udu’s music fits on playlists next to Grimes, Remi Wolf, PinkPantherss, and Bôa. Udu recorded both songs in her bedroom in Concord and used Logic to mix songs as a hobby when school became stressful.
With the sudden success of “girlfriend,” she is deciding on whether to stay an independent artist or sign with a label. Rolling Stone wrote that she creates “awkward black girl anthems,” and commented on her musical idols growing up like Tears for Fears, BTS, Calvin Harris, and other synth-pop groups (mostly from the 80s).
Now with 276k followers on TikTok, Udu is starting to tease a new song, “stranger danger.” Promoting her music on the clock app has grown her audience significantly since “gimmie all ur luv” came out earlier this year. By releasing small sections of the song as available audios, listeners only get a small taste of what the song will be. This strategy was employed quite successfully last year by Charlie Puth, who posted his song writing process and teased “Lightswitch” for months before it was released as a single preceding his album CHARLIE.
We here at Actuality have greatly contributed to Udu’s millions of streams and we look forward to seeing her grow as an artist in the coming years. Follow her on Instagram and TikTok @hemlocksprings to stay up to date on her next projects.