FloyyMenor and Cris MJ‘s “Gata Only” was the top song on TikTok globally in 2024. “Gata Only” also cracked the top 10 in the U.S., according to the platform’s announcement on Wednesday (Dec. 4), although Tommy Richman‘s “MILLION DOLLAR BABY (VHS)” was the biggest TikTok song stateside.
Catalog songs did not appear to perform as well on the app in 2024. In the U.S., almost every one of the top tracks was new, with the exception of Blood Orange’s “Champagne Coast,” a gauzy, yearning cut from 2011.
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In 2022, in contrast, catalog accounted for four of the top 10 songs in the U.S.: Pharrell’s “Just A Cloud Away,” Labrinth’s “Forever,” WILLOW’s “Wait a Minute!” and Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God).” And in 2023, older songs like Justine Sky’s “Collide,” PARTYNEXTDOOR’s “Her Way,” and Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” were embraced by TikTok users, rocketing into the platform’s top 10.
At the same time, sped-up tracks did not have as much success on TikTok as they have had in the past, despite other streaming platforms’ growing interest in trying to tap into the sped-up craze. In 2023 in particular, the four most popular songs on TikTok in the U.S. were all sped-up. But this year, no sped-up songs appeared in the top 10 Stateside — or in the U.K., or in the global ranking.
“Gata Only” initially became popular in Chile — Floyymenor’s home — before spreading to Mexico, Argentina, and the rest of Latin America, according to Mike Weiss, head of A&R at UnitedMasters, which signed the singer. “After the regional growth, TikTok became the springboard that pushed the song into the U.S.,” Weiss continues. “The real moment when non-Spanish speakers started using the sound with videos like ‘POV: You don’t speak Spanish but can’t stop listening to this song.’”
Alongside FloyyMenor’s breakout single, other major hits on TikTok in the U.S. include Ye and Ty Dolla $ign’s “Carnival” and Lay Bankz’s “Tell Ur Girlfriend.” Along with “Champagne Coast” and “Million Dollar Baby,” this means that half of the Top 10 were releases from independent labels. (Though parts of the indie community currently have a contentious relationship with TikTok.)
“Tell Ur Girlfriend” went viral in part thanks to a dance trend — a throwback to an earlier time on TikTok. “These young girls made this amazing dance, and we started to spend heavily on it, having influencers do it,” recalls Alec Henderson, head of digital at Artist Partner Group, which signed Bankz. “Most of last year and the first half of this year, dancing was not what was popular on TikTok anymore. This one brought that nostalgia-dancing thing back to life.”
