ROSIE's Whirlwind Success On TikTok

Leading up to me posting on TikTok, there was a lot of insecurity in my life. We were in Covid and I was going through a breakup, and I was still trying to figure out online school. Through all of this change and chaos, I was having a really hard time believing in myself as an artist, which is why my manager and brother, Matteo, suggested TikTok, and said, "You know, I really think if you put yourself out on TikTok, you'll see some love and you'll see how incredible you are." And I was like, "Okay."

I was going back and forth between figuring out, was I gonna drop out of music school? Was I gonna keep going? Was I gonna keep trying to be an artist, do songwriting, music therapy? There were a lot of questions. So when I finally decided in September to post my first TikTok, I was definitely not optimistic. I had played with TikTok here and there, but I had never taken it seriously as a commitment. But this was my commitment to myself and to my music and to my songwriting. I was like, "Okay, I owe this to myself."

I came up with this song-a-day challenge. It was just posting my music until it gets some love. So day one I posted and I probably got a couple hundred views. Day two, I posted - a couple hundred views. Meanwhile, I'm gearing up to begin my semester, so I'm back in Boston and I'm moving into an apartment and I'm getting all my books and I'm getting ready. Day three hits and I think I probably got like a thousand views, which is a lot - it's really important to me that I specify that it's all relative, and a thousand people seeing your TikTok is incredible. If that's what you're getting, keep going. And then day four, I posted a TikTok and it got 6,000 views. I remember being ecstatic. I remember being like, "Oh my goodness."

The next day, it was the first day of classes and I was running around, my phone was dying, and I didn't know what to post, and I remember that I'd written this song that counted from 10 back to one. So I said, "Okay, I'm just gonna record it really quickly." My roommate walks in, I'm like, "Oh, it's fine." It's just my roommate walking in at the end. I had my little brick wall and I really had no idea how much that day was gonna change my life, but it did because around 6:00 p.m. I posted this "Never The 1" video, and I decided to go for a walk. But the phone died, and I went on a two-hour walk with my friend. I didn't have keys to my apartment yet, so I was just chilling in Boston.

About an hour and a half later, I get back to my place and I realize I don't have my keys. My phone's dead, and my computer is 1%. So I'm like, "What do I do?" I realized that my apartment was in the front of the building, so I opened my computer on the stairs outside with 1% and I texted my roommates, "Guys, I locked myself out. I realize I don't have a key yet. Can you let me in?" And they're like, "Yes, we got you." And suddenly like 30 texts flood in - "ROSIE, you have to check TikTok." I was like, "I'm just trying to fend for my life here. What do you mean check TikTok?" I'm just locked outta my building and it's night and it's Boston and it's cold and I don't have keys, and I just started school ...I was stressing out there. "Just check TikTok."

So I get inside, plug in my phone, and about an hour and a half from posting it, it had 996,000 views. I texted my brother and I said, "Do you think it's gonna hit a million?" And he was like, "Of course, it's not gonna hit a million. What are you talking about?" It was really in that moment, I was like, "Oh, something's happening." So we stayed up and we watched the numbers. A million, 2 million, 3 million... went to bed, woke up, and it was 8 million, 9 million. And it kept climbing. I'm a firm believer in the universe, I'm a firm believer in hard work, I'm a firm believer that me and Matteo and everyone - we put the work in to get here. But that was a sign, I was like, "Okay, this is my sign to take advantage of this opportunity I'm getting." I'd say within 12 to 24 hours, 10 labels reached out - publishers, lawyers - you name it, it was really all right there, and it was all because of this one song. Since then I have not questioned once that this is what I love and I was given this opportunity. I just try to make the best of it.

Why TikTokers Resonated With "Never The 1"

The songs were honest, they were authentic, but it was the fact that "Never The 1" had the catchiness of the numbers, with the theme of loss - I don't know a single person that didn't go through some type of loss during the pandemic. I mean, the entire world was going through a loss. And the fact that it was short, and they were really honoring short-form content - it was like 26 seconds. I think it was just a perfect build of the right theme and the right amount of catchiness. And luck - the algorithm. I attribute so much to the algorithm and just being in the right place at the right time. But I think the reason any of my music has resonated in the last couple of years is because we've experienced a lot of trauma and a lot of loss, and a lot of scary things in the last couple of years, and in our lifetimes, and I just am not afraid to write about it.

Her Success Is A Team Effort

I give so much credit too to my collaborators and the people that I work with because they help me tell my story. I'm such a firm believer in collaborating - I wouldn't be here if it weren't for all these people that I get to work with, who help me bring out all of those feelings.

On my own I would not be here. It was my brother and my manager who suggested TikTok, and it was my lawyer who got me to work with an incredible label. And it was my mom and dad who supported my music journey when I was young. I'm just a makeup of everything and everyone around me.

The Phone Call That Inspired Her Career Motto

My brother Matteo had a phone call with someone, and he was given a piece of advice - a quote - that has quite literally led me to make every decision I've ever made. And the quote is, "Know what you want now and know what you want most, and don't put what you want now over what you want most."

A lot of the music industry is such a slow burn and there's such little instant reward and this instant sense of success, and so I was getting all of it all at once. When I was going through my publishing deals with my team, it was like, "Okay, well what do I want now? And what do I want most?" Because maybe right now it'd be nice to be financially stable - it would be nice to be with a big-name label, management, lawyer, whatever. But what I want most is to have a long-term career where I get to help people while doing what I love, while helping myself and helping others. So every decision that we made was based on this idea of a long-term career and knowing what we wanted most and not letting what we want now override what we want most. Having that vision of the future helped us so much, because I can truly say that every single person on my team - and we're getting up to 30 people at this point - they're all on the same page in terms of what we want now versus what we want most. And it's so special.

Finding A Music-Industry Mother

[The music industry] is a lot of logistics and it's a lot of paperwork and suddenly it's this world of business, but my guiding light in all of this was my lawyer, Gillian Bar. The main reason that I first gravitated towards her was when I got on the phone, she sounded like my mom. I'm not even kidding. When my brother talked to her first, he was like, "ROSIE, she sounds like mom." She has been my music-industry mother ever since - my guiding light, my fairy godmother. With her by my side, I feel like I've been able to make really good long-term decisions. But being 20 and being thrown into it, I feel like I kind of had to grow up overnight. I think I went from being 20 years old to 35 within the span of 24 hours. But having a lawyer that feels like a mom really makes me feel like I can be in my 20s.

I am a commodity, I am a business entity, I am an LLC - I make people money and I understand that. But for me it's finding the balance between understanding that I am a money-making machine, but I'm also a human. I love what I do and I love being a musician and I'm a young woman and there's so many more things that go into it. Just finding that balance is key.

How Did The Five Stages Of Grief Influence 5 Songs For Healing?

The five stages of grief are actually associated with my previous EP. It's really interesting because I'm realizing this theme of 'fives' that I didn't even realize before. But when I was going through my breakup and going through all these losses and processing all my emotions, I really was going through the five stages of grief. So when you listen to 20mg of Happiness, which was my first EP, I think you can really see where I'm going, where's the anger, where's the bargaining, where's the depression? And coming out of that and reaching that acceptance, which is the last stage of grief.

As I was creating this second EP, I was asking myself, "Where do I go next? What happens after you've gone through the stages? What happens after you've lost and you've healed and you've learned to love again and you've learned to pick yourself back up? What's that called? Where am I now?" Because I was just a little confused. I went through a lot of loss for many years of my life in many different ways, so I was like, "What happens next?"

So when I started writing these songs, I kept asking myself, "What do they all have in common? What is it about all these songs that ties them together and makes it a story?" I realized that each song really represents a different part of myself healing and - all in different ways. "Next Life" is all about finding happiness and finding a way to tap into a new life where I'm happy and I can meditate and I'm the best version of myself. "I Should Just Go To Bed" is about trusting my gut and listening to my inner knowing for the first time instead of just acting impulsively. "Start Over" is about my relationship with myself and figuring out how to let go of parts that no longer serve me.

It started to become so clear that every single one of these songs was about my healing journey. Then it became even clearer to me that because the whole world went through all these losses, we're all on a healing journey. I had this moment of healing and I was like, "Wow, I think we're all healing. I think we're all working on healing in some way or another." That's kind of how the theme came about. It took me a minute, though, to really understand what it was that I was going through and what I was experiencing.

The Story Behind The Single "Potential"

I love telling this story because it was actually my therapist, Patricia, that gave me this line. I was going through yet another sad goodbye of someone I cared about. I was like, "What is it? Is it me? What am I doing wrong? I can't do this." And she said, "ROSIE, you didn't fall for them, you fell for their potential. You fell for the idea of them. You see the best in people so far ahead, to such a degree that they can't even live up to it. You see the best in people and the best in their futures, and that's not even who they are right now. That's not even close to who they are. And because you see the best in these people, it actually hurts you."

Big brain blow-up moment, and big healing moment because from that moment on, whenever I've met someone, whether it's platonically, romantically, career-wise, no matter what it is, I ask, "What do I see in them and is it who they are now or is it who I hope they'll become?" Because that's not fair to them if that's what I see in them. That's not fair to me, that's not fair to anyone involved. That's how I got that line, "When I fell, I thought you were special, but I fell for your potential."

I also like it because, in a weird way, it's me taking accountability. It's like, "I thought you were special. I fell for your potential." That's another really big part of healing - it's not pointing a finger and not blaming. It's like, this was me, I did that, and sure, you played a part, but at the end of the day, I fell for your potential, and since then I feel like I've really learned to see people's potential and separate it from who they really are.

The Story Behind "I Should Just Go To Bed"

That one was about exploring, listening to my gut, and knowing in my heart again what was right. It goes back to what I wanted in that moment versus what I wanted most. In that moment, I really wanted to reach out to this person and be like, "I miss you and this sucks, and I hate being without you." But I knew that what I wanted most was to be loved and to be in a healthy relationship, and to be healthy myself, and I knew I couldn't do that with this person. So sitting there, instead of texting them, I actually really did go to bed. And I went to bed every night and I never texted them. That's a big moment when you realize what you need, what you need long term, and you listen to that voice, you listen to that gut.

It's such a simple but huge win when you decide to make a small decision for yourself that you know long term is gonna really help you out. I'm so glad I went to bed every night and I didn't engage in that behavior because it would've been toxic of me. And I did it. But that's what that's about. Apparently it's really relatable. Like apparently everybody has someone that they want to text and don't.

But some people should, if they feel the call to reach out, reach out. It was just in my specific situation, I knew that the decision I had made to no longer continue this relationship was a really healthy one for me. So reaching back out was not gonna do me any good.

Thank goodness for my collaborators for keeping me sane because I wrote that the day after I ended it, and I was such a mess. And they were like, "What do you wanna write about? Let's talk about it. What can we do? How can we help?" And I was just like, "Let's just write a song about it," and that's the song that came out of it. I'm so glad because I love it.

ROSIE Imagines Her Dream Two-Year Plan

If I were to wave my magic wand and I were to plan out the next two years, I would take everything I'm doing and just scale it. So instead of going into a room and connecting with 200 people and helping 200 people, and 200 people helping me, I want it to be 2000. And instead of my music reaching a couple hundred thousand, I want it to be millions. I want to help on a global level and I just wanna reach more people. I know that the more people I reach, hopefully, the more I can help and just spread my word and my awareness. And truly that's all I'm working on. I just wanna take everything I'm doing and I wanna grow it. I wanna make it bigger. I wanna build the community. I want more people to feel safe online and feel like they don't have to wear makeup or use filters, and they can express themselves. The magic wand would make everything explode.

June 27, 2023

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Photos: Ragen Henderson

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