Watch: Cork singer Allie Sherlock goes viral (again). This time with 16 million views
A still from the viral Allie Sherlock clip of the Cork singer performing Coldplay's 'Viva la Vita'.
She’s the busking sensation from Douglas, Co. Cork, who shot to fame as a 13-year-old with her appearance on in 2018. Now the singer, who picked up her first guitar, aged just eight, stopped passers-by in their tracks with her husky rendition of Coldplay’s 'Viva la Vita' that’s gone viral.
Her unique voice and remarkable range caught the attention of thousands when it was first posted two years ago, but it was when celebrity magician Ben Taylor shared it on his own social media this weekend that things really took off.
Known as the Magic Mod, Taylor, who is a member of the Magic Circle which has fewer than two thousand members worldwide, posted the video to X, describing Sherlock’s rendition of the song “the best cover I’ve ever seen in my life. Wow, what a voice.”
Sixteen million views of the cover later, curiosity over 18-year-old Sherlock has reached fever pitch, especially across the UK.
“Seen this video doing the rounds but never with a name for the artist. She’s getting great exposure though,” commented one follower.
“Wow, this girl is a STAR,” wrote another “Somebody give this girl a record deal.”
“The best part is how much she’s enjoying herself,” someone wrote under the video, which shows Allie singing her heart out on in Dublin city centre. “I would definitely buy her album. She sounds like Amy Winehouse doing Coldplay”.
Allie Sherlock is no stranger to viral hits. With six million YouTube subscribers, two million Instagram followers and a TikTok community of over four million, the 18-year-old has been sharing videos of her life through music since she started busking pop covers from stars like Adele and Ed Sheeran.
She got her big break when the video she posted on of her singing Ed Sheeran’s ‘Supermarket Flowers’ went viral. She was invited to LA by American singer and producer Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic after he saw her videos on . Tedder, a highly respected music producer, has written songs with artists from Beyoncé to U2.
More recently, Sherlock has headlined her own shows, as well as performing as a support act for One Republic, Picture This, Freya Ridings and Gavin James around Europe. She performed at the AO Arena in Manchester for the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II celebrations in 2022, and released her own album, last year.
Speaking after her first big performance to a live audience, Sherlock told the ; “It was just me and my guitar, but it was fine, and I wasn’t nervous. By the end of the gig, I was looking over at my dad saying, ‘can I do one more song’.”
Though Sherlock, who was home-schooled since she left primary school, covers much-loved ballads that include Abba's 'Slipping Through My Fingers' and Tina Turner, she’s also finding success writing her own compositions.
Her original songs include 'Hero, Without You' and 'Leave Me With a Decent Goodbye'. She wrote Locked Inside as a reflection on the covid lockdown, while 'The Night Before' is a song about her mother, who died when Sherlock was just nine years old.
