Anthony Gargiula, Natalie Jane & Jonathan Tilkin are each social media personalities in their own right. Tilkin and Gargiula are also members of Earcandy, an acapella group that has more than 2.8M TikTok followers. In 2020, Earcandy released a Christmas album through Republic Records. In 2021, Earcandy performed on CNN’s Graduation Special.
Early in 2023, Anthony Gargiula, Natalie Jane & Jonathan Tilkin got together to create a few short videos in a corner of Gariula’s kitchen, which happens to be the setting for a number of Gargiula-related shorts. They recorded snippets of Billie Eilish’s When The Party’s Over, Oceans by Hillsong UNITED, I See Red by Everybody Loves An Outlaw, Sara Bareilles’ She Used to Be Mine, and this one:
That is Part Of Your World, which was performed by Halle Bailey on The Little Mermaid soundtrack. For Music Man readers who aren’t familiar with YouTube shorts or TikTok, the video can be a little disconcerting, as, if you don’t realise that it’s a short clip that loops, Natalie Jane appears to keep climbing up on the kitchen cupboard then magically reappearing at the front of the trio. I wonder if Natalie Jane clambers up to enact the line “Wouldn’t I love, love to explore that shore up above”?
Posted on YouTube on 8 June 2023, the clip has 10.6M views in 1 month! Tiktok figures are harder to track as the video appears under different names. On the Natalie Jane Sings account it’s called The. Last. Harmony. and has 7.2M views. Comments on short videos tend to be hyperbolic. Nathaniel Teel says, “Can we please, please, please have a full cover?!?!? Your harmonies are unreal!” Sen writes: “I would give anything to sing like that, this is the best thing I’ve ever had the pleasure to hear.”
That is Natalie Jane’s first big budget ($5000) video, released on 28 April 2003 (1,9M views). Speaking to Euphoriazine in an article coordinated with the release of the single, Natalie Jane said, “The song is about empowerment and not letting anybody get to you. Whether you’re in a toxic relationship or not, you shouldn’t let anyone make you feel bad because you have the power over your own heart.” In introducing her Euphoriazine writes: “Who hasn’t heard of Natalie Jane? Be it one of her 6.8 million TikTok followers or a mere social media passer-by, the New Jersey native is the mastermind behind today’s most viral tracks. Remember the inescapable parking lot riff from Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”? That’s her. The infectiously unforgettable girl belting “Who the fuck is Ava”? You guessed it, that’s Jane again. At only 19 years old the starlet is at the precipice of her inevitable superstardom, we’re watching her shape into one of the industry’s most potent voices in real-time.”
So far, Natalie Jane’s Where Am I? tour, which starts in September, has 12 dates booked across Europe and the US, with most of the European shows, including two nights in London, sold out. Of the three friends, it is Natalie Jane that is making the biggest transition from social media icon to a traditional celebrity. Make no mistake, though, the other two are no slouches.
24-year-old Anthony Gargiula sang live on The Ellen Degeneres Show when he was 7. He appeared on The Ellen Show several more times, and he also sang on NBC’s Today Show and on the CBS Early Show. This early success has stood him in good stead for getting slots in concerts.
29-year-old Jonathan Tilkin is reputed to have sung with Ariana Grande when he was 8, though the circumstances are unclear. On TikTok and Instagram he is known for his covers of songs by artists in the vein of Harry Styles, Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber