Bass supergroup The Wellermen were discovered during the viral Sea Shanty trend of early 2021. The four have never met together in person, with members Bobby Waters & Luke Taylor based in the US and Jonny Stewart & Sam Pope based in the UK. The four members’ lives were to change when they dueted with a seemingly innocuous ‘Sea Shanty’ (Wellerman) on TikTok. Since the release of the now ubiquitous TikTok, it’s been viewed over 35+ million times across multiple platforms and continents, and has seen The Wellermen appear at events like The Brits, shows like Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night TakeAway, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver and The Colbert Show & ABC News Australia. The Wellermen used their moment of unexpected virality for lasting good, raising money via proceeds from ‘Wellerman’ for the Marine Conservation Society, giving back to the seas.
Having never met prior to their viral Tik Tok moment, the individual members of the group each have varied backgrounds. Bobby Waters was at the University of Massachusetts and graduated with a degree in Computer Science, whilst over in the UK, Jonny Stewart was freelancing as a bass singer and studying to become an accountant. The youngest member of the group, Luke Taylor, at only 19, was the only bass on the original ‘Wellerman’ recording sung by Nathan Evans and subsequently was asked to join The Wellermen to form the supergroup of singers. To complete The Wellermen lineup, British native Sam Pope is not just a singer, he’s also a professional actor & multi-instrumentalist, currently starring in the touring musical production of ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ in the UK.
Following on from their first viral moment the group took over the internet again with their take on blockbuster track Misty Mountains taken from the film & book The Hobbit, which has now racked up over 6M+ streams, over 2M+ views on YouTube & 40M+ views on TikTok. The group have gone onto release eight singles, 20M+ streams, over 19M views, grown their Tik Toks to a combined 4.5M +, featured in Forbes Magazine, featured at #4 in Germany’s Spotify Viral Chart.
The Wellermen have now released their much anticipated debut album which iIncluded hits like their cover of Ed Sheeran’s Nancy Mulligan, Misty Mountains (40m+ TikTok views), alongside the track that started it all “Wellerman.” The group haved built a global fan base consisting of a combined 7M+ following, racked up 40 million+ streams across all platforms.