I’m going to be honest, I haven’t thought about Nickelback all that much since Chad Kroeger‘s brief marriage to Canadian pop queen Avril Lavigne, when she recorded a piano cover of How You Remind Me, which really truly holds up amazingly well.
Anyway, you’re not here to read about Avril Lavigne’s 2013 self-titled album (which was largely written by Kroeger and is incredible) and you’re also not here to read about its follow-up, Head Above Water, which features several Kroeger collaborations and is also pretty good.
No, today, today you’re here to read about Nickelback themselves, who have gone viral thanks to TikTok’s newfound obsession with sea shanties. I’ll give you a second if you need to read over that sentence again in order to process it, because it’s basically nonsense, but it’ll all make sense soon.
SO. Earlier this month, UK group The Lottery Winners uploaded a TikTok of them covering Nickelback’s 2005 hit Rockstar in sea shanty style. The band saw it, liked it and were eager to get their name trending, so they added some vocals of their own and, and it’s … pretty catchy?
It’s not as catchy as Avril Lavigne’s self-titled 2013 album (which, once again, you should really check out if you haven’t – there’s a song on it where she raps about going to the beach and getting harassed by the cops and it’s wild) but it’s still pretty good.
Go ahead and give it a listen:
Thanks to our new friends The @LotteryWinners for letting us join them on a new take of Rockstarrrr. Follow us on TikTok: https://t.co/ktf1aXU4km #SeaShanty pic.twitter.com/UmNpMSGOw3
— Nickelback (@Nickelback) January 23, 2021
The sea shanty trend has taken over TikTok these past few weeks, and the instigator of it all, Scottish postman Nathan Evans, recently said:
“Back in the day when the shanties were sung, it was to bring everybody together, to keep them all in time, to keep the morale high. So I think it’s just kind of brought it into this day and age. Everybody’s at home, they’re low, they’re not feeling too happy and then this song comes on and everybody’s joining in. It kind of brings everybody together, it makes it feel like you’re all united. Especially seeing how creative everybody can be with it, there’s people with violins joining in, there’s accordions.”
Anyway, this is all well and good, but can someone please get a sea shanty cover of Aril’s Hello Kitty trending? It’s what the world needs and deserves right now and I personally will be very thankful for it.
