Em Beihold's song "Numb Little Bug" went viral on TikTok and then became a radio smash. Considering she only started using the app because she was at a very low point in her life, it's no wonder that Em says, "TikTok saved me."
Em tells ABC Audio, "I'd actually graduated June 2020, into the pandemic. I was a very hard worker, an overachiever. I thought, if you do this, you, in theory, get a good job after. But nothing was happening. I applied to hundreds...heard back from one. So that definitely led to some depression."
"I felt this hole that I didn't think I'd be able to crawl out of," she continues. "Because, I mean, you're writing all these cover letters and updating your resume every day and nothing's happening. But TikTok saved me."
At first, Em dismissed TikTok as a "children's dance app." But after she downloaded it and posted a cover of a Dua Lipa song, she realized there was something there.
"I had ten followers, but it got 300 views," Em recalls, adding, "I think in that moment I realized there was something there." After she saw how other songs on TikTok were getting millions of views, she realized "how powerful a tool it could be."
Em notes, "I never at any point was like, 'Oh, this is how it's going to happen.' I was just using it because I saw what it could do."
But of course, that is how it happened: After posting her song "Groundhog Day" in May 2021, it went viral, which led to a record deal. Then, "Numb Little Bug" happened.
Em recently released her EP Egg in the Backseat along with a new song, "Goo."