Chart dial: Russian schoolgirls were offered a fit with Doja Cat
Sigma Boy, a viral track by young Russian singers Betsy and Maria Yankovskaya, has conquered social networks and entered the Billboard and Spotify world charts. Users from all over the world shoot short videos for the song, which gain millions of views, and major foreign labels offer the authors to cooperate and talk about the possibility of making a joint work with foreign stars. In the near future plans to shoot a music video for "Sigma Boy". More - in the material "Izvestia".
Who is Sigma Boy?
Song Russian schoolgirls Betsy and Maria Yankovskaya Sigma Boy, which premiered in October 2024, continues to rumble in the world. In January, it marked a new achievement - it reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot Dance/Pop Songs chart, where it was placed next to hits by Ariana Grande, The Weekend, Katy Perry, Billie Eilish. Prior to that, the track climbed the Viral Sobgs Global chart on Spotify. On YouTube, the audio has 56 million listens. On social media, there are thousands of videos taken by users from around the world to the dynamic chorus:
"Sigma, sigma boy, sigma boy, sigma boy, sigma boy.
♪ Every girl wants to dance with you ♪
♪ Sigma, sigma boy, sigma boy, sigma boy, sigma boy ♪
I'm so all you're gonna want for a year."
K-pop stars also took notice of the viral song. Korean band Enhypen member Sonu posted a short video on TikTok that garnered about 12.5 million views and 2.7 million likes within a week.
Singer Sveta Chertischeva
Later, the chorus from the same song was also sung live on air by the leader of Enhypen. Chonwony asked fans about Sigma Boy. The song about the mysterious Sigma Boy was written by Betsy's (Svetlana Chertischeva) father, composer Mikhail Chertischev, in collaboration with rock singer Mukka. In the professional environment Chertishchev is known as the author of music and compositions for "Luntik", "Barboskiny", the series "Three Bogatyrs" and other projects.
- Here, I think, a very strong melodic basis and a strong concept are found. Sigma Boy is a guy who doesn't need any girls at all. He's so cool that he's not interested in female attention, he has it in overabundance. But this girl is even cooler, and he's gonna chase her for a year. This is a dream song, and any dream song always works very well, - explains Mikhail Chertischev. - Another important point is the vivid memorable phonetics. Plus there are folk chant motifs, which is important. It's such a looped tribal story that makes you want to jump around the campfire to this rhythm.
This is not the first track in his daughter's career that became popular on the Internet. A few years ago, the social media trend was the song "Simple dimple, pop it, squish," after "Capybara".
Musicologist Sergei Uvarov explains that the phenomenon of any viral hit is a combination of different factors, including the factor of chance. But in the era of TikTok and shorts, he says, there is one indispensable condition: there must be a short and very sticky motif at the core, which can be painlessly ripped away from everything else.
- The tentative ticktocker in his video doesn't have time to swing: you have to hook the audience immediately, whether it's a dance or something else; the same is true for the music. Sigma Boy's chorus is fully up to the task. The motif is arranged in such a way that its second phrase simply varies the first, and the third phrase repeats it almost exactly. Thus, only five seconds of the first phrase is enough to convey the "vibe" laid down by the authors and imprint the motif into the mind of the listener/viewer, and each repetition only reinforces the result," said Uvarov.
In addition, the expert believes that the fact that the simple chorus of "Sigma Boy" can be sung by a native speaker of any language has also worked.
- It is worth taking into account the hit's maximum primitiveness and internationality (a Chinese, an American, or a Russian can easily repeat the very first line of the refrain). And also - orientation not even on teenagers, but on children's audience and younger teenagers, that is, plus or minus the same age as the performers - an audience undemanding, but already actively writing their own content in TikTok and similar services - concluded Sergei Uvarov.
"One label offered us a matchmaking deal with Doja Cat."
After the success of Sigma Boy, its creators received many offers of cooperation, including from major foreign labels.
- Warner, Universal, Sony, some subsidiary labels offer cooperation. All of them have absolutely different conditions. Some of them promote the song in European and American cities, some of them promote the song in different territories with large advance budgets, some of them promote the track with the help of hits with big artists. One label offered us a fitchery with Doja Cat. But to be honest, we discarded that offer because we were not given a guarantee when we went for further negotiations. Now you have to make the right choice, because there are times when you can agree on something, but in the end everything goes wrong," Mikhail Chertischev explained.
Singer Doja Cat
It's too early to estimate how much the explosive track has earned from streaming royalties, says the composer, but assumes that the numbers will be impressive.
- We don't see the numbers yet, but they will be absolutely big. In the neighborhood of maybe 20-25 movies I'm working on. So I mean I think one track will bring in more than my entire movie career. And I've had about 30 full meters done. Usually a composer earns on one movie from two to 15 million rubles, depending on its level, - said Mikhail.
In the nearest plans - shooting a high-budget video for Sigma Boy, directed by brothers Anton and Ilya Chizhikov, and the premiere of a new song Betsy about a drama queen.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
