Parents of young children may not thank her for it. But teenager Gayle has finally wrestled the UK number one slot from Adele with “abcdefu”, her unapologetically explicit TikTok break-up song.
In what could signal a generational shift, the 17 year-old from Nashville bumped Adele’s “Easy On Me” from the top of the Official UK Top 40.
Whilst Adele is famed for turning heartbreak into weepie ballads, Gayle converted her anger at a useless ex into a furious pop-punk anthem.
“F*** you and your mom and your sister and your job. Everybody but your dog, you can all f*** off,” Gayle rages in the catchy chorus, streamed 4.7m times this week.
A toned-down version, titled abc(nicer) is being played on Radio 1’s A-list.
But the original version is just a click away on streaming platforms, alongside “angrier”, “chill” and remixed versions, which retain the offending language and counted together, have boosted its chart performance.
“Abcdefu” is being chased up the charts by another teenager’s TikTok viral break-up song, Fingers Crossed by Lauren Spencer-Smith, an 18 year-old American Idol contestant, which soared to number four.
Released last Summer, “abcdefu” has gradually built momentum after going viral on TikTok, where it has inspired more than two million videos featuring the song.
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Billboard called it officially “the biggest song in the world” after it hit number one this week on the music industry trade magazine’s Global 200, racking up more than 350m plays.
Gayle, who started performing in bars aged 10, said her song was “about asking, ‘Why am I being so nice to this person who completely took advantage of me?’, and allowing myself to express my anger about that.”
With songs like early single Dumbass, she is “trying to give people a safe space to be angry and process their own emotions.”
Gayle has now signed with Atlantic Records, the company behind Ed Sheeran’s huge success.
“The thought of my song being Number 1 in the UK is so hard to comprehend, but I’m just so excited and grateful. Thank you for being angry with me and hopefully we can feel all the emotions with each other again ❤,” Gayle told Official Charts.com
Gayle and Spencer-Smith are following in the footsteps of last year’s breakthrough star Olivia Rodrigo, whose heartache ballad Drivers License broke streaming records.
Gayle and Rodrigo cite Taylor Swift as a major musical and lyrical influence.
