TikTok’s “Mad at Disney” singer gains 1m followers in under a month

Just one viral sound or video on TikTok can earn you international fame in a very short space of time. Just ask Brittany Broski who will forever be known as Kombucha girl, or Bella Poarch for her “M to the B” dance.

Now creator and musician Salem Ilese (@salemilese) has earned 1 million followers in less than a month for her song “Mad at Disney,” which has so far had 1.2 million TikToks created using the sound. The original video has 5 million likes and more than 20 million views at the time of writing.

The song which goes “I’m mad at Disney, Disney, they tricked me, tricked me,” was written by Salem Ilese, Bendik Møller, and Jason Hahs.

Salem told Rolling Stone magazine that Disney sets unrealistic standards in romance, which influenced the lyrics, saying “I started talking about how Disney gave me an incredibly false view on relationships.”

Salem celebrated the huge milestone by posting to TikTok highlighting the huge growth of her account and writing “I wanna hug you all…the biggest group hug of all time. THANK YOU!”

It became immensely popular as a sound among Disney cosplayers on the app who made videos lipsyncing to the lyrics. Other famous creators also bumped up the sound to stardom including Bella Poarch, Natalie Mariduena, and Noah Beck.

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Fans of the song also included huge internet stars such as Patrick Starr who commented on the original video saying “OMG LOVEEE”, and fitness guru Blogilates who said, “love this song!!”

Other fans found the song incredibly relatable and clever. One top comment read: “The ‘shooting star’ part was so freaking smart. Like its such an intricate detail that I’m sure most people missed wow.” Another user wrote: “You have such a nice voice and major talent to write music like this.”

On Spotify, the song now has 17.6 million streams. TikTok has helped launched Salem as both a musician and a star on the platform.