Myles Smith on life after his viral hit ‘Stargazing’: ‘I don’t want to disappear overnight’

‘As musicians, all we do is push air – it’s everyone else [in the crowd] that is doing the emotional hard work’ - (Jennifer McCord)

In the blink of an eye, Myles Smith had made it. The 26-year-old from Luton went viral on TikTok last spring with his catchy covers of chart-topping mega hits, before his own song “Stargazing” – a barn-shaking pop-hoedown about love – took off, notching up over half a billion streams on Spotify and cracking the UK Top 10. Barack Obama spun the track on his summer playlist and Smith won a Brit award, along with 23 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Now, he’s supporting Ed Sheeran on a global tour. Piece of cake.

Not quite. This picture of slingshot success is, as always, only an illusion: a mirage made up of pixels and internet hype. The facts are true – “Stargazing” did go viral, Smith did win the Brit Rising Star award, and the former US president is, in fact, a fan – but what looks like a lightning flash of destiny is really the result of years spent grinding, not to mention the start of more to come.