Tommy Richman on the Last-Minute Pivot That Led to Global Hit ‘Million Dollar Baby’: ‘That Song Is Going to Last Forever’

variety.com:

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer Early last spring, Tommy Richman had a carefully planned strategy in place to promote his single “Selfish.” However, the internet had other plans.

In April, the 24-year-old Virginia native posted a snippet of a new song called “Million Dollar Baby” on TikTok. The clip, with its booming, distorted bass, went viral and quickly racked up almost 9 million uses on the platform. “People were berating me on Instagram and in my DMs saying, ‘Drop this song!’” Richman says. “I probably got a couple thousand DMs, which was insane, and then I told my label, ‘We gotta drop this song next week!

We need to chase this moment — it’s time.’” A last-minute shift to push “Million Dollar Baby” paid off. Released as both a studio and a “VHS” version (the TikTok that teased the song was shot on a VHS recorder), the funk-splattered track debuted at No.

2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped charts worldwide, thrusting the genre-bending artist into seemingly overnight success.