About

Go Little Rockstar is a misheard lyric, or mondegreen, from the 2016 song "Pope Is A Rockstar" by the band SALES. The lyric became a prominent sound on TikTok in late 2021 after it was paired with numerous wholesome videos, such as those of animals or people doing good deeds.

Origin

"Pope Is a Rockstar" was released by SALES on April 22nd, 2016. The original upload of the song has been viewed over 7.5 million times on YouTube in the six years since its release (shown below).

It's unclear when the sound was first uploaded to TikTok. However, one of the first known instances of the sound becoming popularized on TikTok was when it was posted on December 2nd, 2021, by TikToker deebo.spins as a way to mourn the loss of some NFL free agents, gaining over 344,000 likes in roughly one month. The video also adds the caption, "Go Little Rockstar," perhaps introducing the misheard lyric for future videos that would use the sound (shown below).

Spread

Over the following month, the sound spread on TikTok as it was paired with cute animals or uplifting content of people. The deebo.spins sound^[1] was used in over 679,000 videos over the following month, while the song's official page^[2] shows that the sound has been used in over 2.6 million videos on the platform as of January 2022. Some high engagement uploads include a January 2nd, 2022, upload by user jessemilio showing a baby using a mixing bowl, which gained over 2.3 million likes in 10 days (shown below, left). On December 13th, 2021, TikToker @flokitthebully posted a video of her adopted dog, gaining over 2.6 million likes in one month (shown below, right).

SALES^[3] commented on the sudden popularity of their new song via the band's official Twitter account, saying that they felt the misheard lyrics were actually better than the ones they wrote originally (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References