Toronto singer reclaims remix that went viral
CBC
When Toronto singer Anjulie Persaud scrolled through her TikTok in November 2022, a particular sound caught her attention — the voice in it was her own.
Persaud, who goes by the stage name Anjulie, released her first single, Boom, in 2009.
The TikTok sound, named Boom Cha La Ka Dance, was posted by a user called LEA. CBC Toronto has reached out to LEA twice via email seeking comment.
The sound features Persaud's vocals, pitched down and sped up, over a new slap house beat. It went viral, racking up millions of views. Currently, 3.6 million TikToks use the uncredited remix.
"At the beginning I was so excited. I was like, 'Oh, this is the app that's breaking artists, and I have a song that's so big on there,'" Persaud said.
But after attempts to reach out to TikTok user LEA went unanswered, her enthusiasm turned sour. Without Persaud's name on the sound title, TikTok users were unlikely to know that she was the artist behind it — particularly as the sound appeared to go viral in Asia, where she has little presence.
Last summer, Persaud began posting an ongoing series of videos to her TikTok page, explaining the remix and how it went viral without her.
Persaud explains her efforts to regain credit in one-such TikTok posted earlier this month that has since gone viral, viewed over two million times and commented on 1,800 times.
"A very good friend of mine who is a DJ, his manager texted me and said, 'why don't you steal the song back?'" she says in the TikTok.
This weekend Persaud said she plans to release her own remix in the hopes of finally getting credit.
"Take my voice, remix my voice, do whatever you want with it. But if it connects, include me," she said.
After Persaud began posting about the situation last summer, her followers sent her links to the full remix on YouTube, Spotify and other platforms. Republic Records and Sony Music Publishing, the labels the song was signed to, helped take down the remix on those platforms.
But Persaud wants to keep the remix on TikTok, where her music has connected with millions of users. That kind of popularity isn't common for independent artists like herself, she said.
"I know how much of catching lightning in a bottle a hit song is," she said.
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