What is the viral song “If I Were a Fish” about?
TikTok‘s latest viral sensation is called “If I Were a Fish.” Artists and partners Corinne Savage, a.k.a Corook, and Olivia Barton first posted themselves singing the charming acoustic duet on April 11.
The song exploded, racking up over 14 million views and comments from musicians including Tori Kelly and Rina Sawayama.
“If I Were a Fish” is about embracing the qualities that make you unique.
“I was having a very emotional day, feeling insecure and out of place. So I cried to Olivia and after feeling through it, we wrote this song in 10 minutes to remember the joy in being different,” Corook explained in the caption of the TikTok.
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The song’s ultra-catchy, wholesome lyrics highlight the uniqueness of every individual person by comparing them to a shimmering fish:
If I were a fish and you caught me / You’d say, ‘Look at that fish shimmering in the sun’ / Such a rare one, can’t believe you caught one / If I were a fish and you caught me / You’d say, ‘Look at that fish, heaviest in the sea’ / You’d win first prize if you caught me
Since then, the song has become an anthem for many people on TikTok, inspiring over 18,000 TikTok videos featuring dance routines, sing-alongs and fish costumes.
Just a week after first teasing the song on TikTok, the Nashville-based indie musicians recorded the song and officially released it on YouTube and Spotify.
Watch “If I Were a Fish” Music Video Below:
On April 25, fans of the song gathered for a special sing-along meet-up in New York City’s Washington Square Park, where the crowd surprised Corook by bringing along kazoos.
In a post on TikTok, Corook marveled at the turnout and thanked fans for attending the meet-up.
“All of my fishy New Yorkers … I can’t friggin believe it. Thank you for singing along with me yesterday,” Corook captioned footage from the event.
Corook shared of the making of the song, “I’m in a place in my adulthood where I am allowing myself to be the most me I can fathom being, and I have never felt so out of place in my life. Whether it be the genre of music I make to my gender identity, I don’t feel like I fit in anywhere. As I was crying about this to my girlfriend, Olivia Barton, she said, ‘Let’s make a song to feel better, and we should make it as weird as possible,'” Corook told Prelude Press about the song’s creation.
“Writing that song with Olivia will go down as one of my favorite memories with her because I’d never felt more seen and loved by another human in my life. I guess it makes sense that the video capturing that memory went viral,” Corook added.