UW student Johnny Huynh turns TikTok fame into record deal
Seattle college student turns TikTok fame into record deal
Johnny Huynh is a University of Washington student who is turning his viral online success into so much more.
Johnny Huynh is a University of Washington student who is turning his viral online success into so much more.
The 22-year-old grew up around music as a member of the band in high school, but after graduation he decided he had to give up on his musical dreams for another career path.
"I was doing mechanical engineering at the University of Washington, and then about two years ago, my best friend basically told me like ‘Wow, you have a really nice voice, you should start posting on TikTok.’ So just one day, I was bored at home and I recorded a cover in my room and that just went crazy viral," he says.
In the two years since he started posting videos, he has gained nearly eight million followers and over 225 million likes.
He rose to TikTok fame because of his garage singing videos, singing song covers in parking garages around the city.
"I started experimenting and singing in different places, and then there's one time I just went out to the parking garage because I saw the echo in the garage and the lighting was so cool, and then I just started singing some covers there," he adds.
One of his most popular covers of Loreen’s "Tattoo" gained over 80 million views, and as he gained millions of followers, he decided to start creating and singing his own music as well, purchasing a full studio setup and figuring out how to produce his own music and how to record vocals at home.
"Once that started going on, I kind of took that momentum and put it into my own original music, and then that helped me get signed to Columbia Records, and now all this crazy stuff is happening, and it's all happened in the span of one-and-a-half or two years, basically," he says.
Creating his own original music, he started promoting them on TikTok, all leading up to his first album that was released on March 7, called "SAVIOR."
He’s known for his emotional and raspy voice on Tiktok, and he says the feedback he got from home videos influenced his original music.
"I had noticed that the emotional aspect of my singing in the garage really caught on to the audience, so most of my songs are like an extension of my emotion, and it really dives deep into those hurtful feelings or those feelings of love that you have," he explains.
While a lot of influencers on TikTok strive to break out of the platform to further their career, it isn’t easy, but Johnny has managed to grow his original music following on YouTube to nearly 500,000 subscribers so far and growing since the release of his album.
He is not only writing music and diving deep into personal stories of relationships in his life, but he is also doing that while still attending the University of Washington, set to graduate in July with a degree in mechanical engineering.
He says he plans to pursue music full-time, but is still happy to be graduating with a degree in something he spent so much time studying for.
"I'm actually really thankful for my engineering background. It really helped me problem-solve through all this music stuff, and just being an educated person, people respect you so much more in the music business. So, I just feel that I can't be taken advantage of by other people," he says.
As he navigates college life and a growing music career, his goals for this music continue to grow, as well.
"My goal right now is, honestly, to reach as many people as possible, and mostly have a strong effect on all of them […] so I really want that to resonate with as many people as possible," he says.
While he just released his album, he already has another release planned soon, a single called "Red Rose," set to release on May 9.
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