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A postman has quit his job following the viral success of his sea shanty videos on TikTok. Watch one here:
Nathan Evans, from Airdrie, Scotland, has amassed more than 440,000 followers on his TikTok account, where some of his sea shanty videos have racked up millions of views.
In doing so, the former Royal Mail worker has started a huge international trend, with some declaring 2021 the year of the sea shanty – which sounds like a refreshing, albeit unexpected, departure from 2020.
Such is his viral popularity, the 26-year-old has decided to hang up his postal sack, having been ‘inundated with opportunities’.
Speaking to BBC Scotland’s The Nine, he said: “Just today I have had to say to my boss ‘I am so sorry but I cannot come back’, I am inundated with opportunities.
“I am no longer a postman as of tonight.
“The shout is to record some sea shanties properly and get them out as records and then keep going with my TikTok and my social media.”
Recalling how he single-handedly resurrected the centuries-old singalongs, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It is crazy and has gone much further than I ever thought it would go.
“I did a sea shanty back in July 2020, just because someone had asked in a comment under one of my videos.
8 days ago“So I uploaded that and it reached 1.1m views. I thought there must have been a demand.
“People were looking forward to more and they were commenting underneath every video after that saying can you sing this one, can you sing that one – it was just requests from people for me to sing them.”
Sea shanties were originally sang by merchant sailors while carrying out rhythmic tasks and were designed to keep them all in sync. Though clearly – as their TikTok revival demonstrates – they’re good fun too.
Explaining why he thinks they’ve proven so popular, Nathan said: “I think its the fact you can get everyone involved, everyone can join in, you don’t need to necessarily be able to sing, the words are simple and it is just the beat and the voices.
“I think it’s a bit of everything that appeals to everyone.”
So there you have it – whether you’re labouring on a ship in 1867 or self-isolating during a pandemic in 2021, it seems sea shanties are a lovely little distraction.
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