21 years later, ‘Hey There Delilah’ finally has an answer
LØLØ surprised her Toronto fans by bringing Tom Higgenson on stage.
The Plain White T's released "Hey There Delilah" in 2005 as an EP for their third studio album. When fans first heard it, their first question was, "Who is Delilah?" 21 years later, "Delilah" finally responded to Tom Higgenson's lyrics. Lauren Mandel, a.k.a. LØLØ (@lolo), took to Instagram on September 27 to share a clip of her singing "Delilah's POV" with Higgenson during her tour in Toronto. The video garnered 4.1 million likes, 16,500 comments, and 232,700 reshares.
'Hey, it's Delilah'
LØLØ was on tour in Toronto when she began singing the intro of "Hey There Delilah," but stopped midway. She apologized to her fans and said, "I feel like it doesn't sound good with me singing it in my head because I'm so used to him singing it. If only Tom from the Plain White T's was here to sing it with me." She then brought Tom Higgenson on stage, and they performed the famous song together.
Delilah's POV replaced Higgenson's second verse in the song. She responded to the original lyrics and went, "Hey, it's Delilah, and boy, times arе getting hard/But I believе you when you say you'll pay the bills with your guitar/I know you could...Hey, it's Delilah, I've got so much left to say/But when I listen to this song you wrote, you take my breath away/And most of all, even more in love with you, I fall/It's all your fault." You can listen to the full version on YouTube.
Not the real Delilah
After the clip of LØLØ singing with Higgenson went viral, she uploaded another video on Instagram on September 28 to explain. LØLØ clarified that she was not the real Delilah. However, she did write the lyrics from Delilah's POV six years ago. It was just something fun she wanted to try. During the pandemic, she was stuck in her room making TikTok dances, but she barely got any views. One day, she decided to do a cover of her favorite song, but from the girl's point of view. She shared a video of her singing "Hey There Delilah" on TikTok, and the Plain White T's noticed her. Six years later, they asked her to record it with them and re-release it.
Full circle
"Hey There Delilah" is almost a classic song for pop rock and acoustic rock fans. It has a total of 1,429,285,982 total plays on Spotify at the time of writing. Their re-release with LØLØ has a total of 755,866 plays and is climbing. A 2021 survey by The Harris Poll on music found that 80% of the respondents favored music they've heard before over new releases. The main reason? Nostalgia.
Respondents also said that 69% of the music they listen to was something they had heard before, while new music accounts for only 18% of the songs on their playlist. LØLØ's version of "Hey There Delilah" with the Plain White T's was such a hit because fans were nostalgic for the song. Getting a reply from "Delilah" made it feel like the story had come full circle.
'Healing for millennials'
Netizens gushed about the song in the comment section. @sharda.sharat commented, "This is exactly how I imagined Delilah would sound." @robbucharest added, "Delilah’s response did not disappoint."
You can follow LØLØ (@lolo) on Instagram for more music content.
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