Gigi Perez is having a moment. The queer Latinx artist is climbing the charts with her new hit single “Sailor Song,” and it’s not the usual path to fame. After facing setbacks that would make most musicians give up, like being dropped by her record label, Perez is proving that she’s unstoppable. And we have TikTok to thank for it.
Gigi Perez Is Taking Over the Charts
Born in New Jersey to Dominican parents, and raised in Florida, the 24-year-old says she’s always had a passion for music. She started writing songs as a teenager. “I would stay up till four or five in the morning just like banging away on the keyboard and just writing about how I felt at the time,” Perez says.
But her musical journey, and song writing, had its bumps along the way, starting in 2020 when the pandemic hit. She quit her studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and experienced the loss of her sister and a “bad breakup.”
“I think it was one of those … certain times in life (where) you're at a standstill. It was definitely a standstill in my life where I didn't feel like I knew who I was,” she explains in an interview.
Then her record label dropped her, leaving her with no backup plan and no guarantee she could keep her music dream alive. Perez didn’t give up, though. Instead, she kept writing and self-producing her songs. One night, she uploaded her music to TikTok, because she says she had “nothing to lose.” Then it all happened quickly.
“Within literally 20 minutes, it went viral,” she explains. “It was so quick; I was just getting an influx of messages from people who had lost siblings, mothers, fathers, friends. And it was the first time I felt ... It felt like a big hug. Like the biggest, warmest hug.”
Then ‘Sailor Song’ Happens and Everything Changes
She went on to open up for ColdPlay and Noah Cyrus, but there was way more to come. Her biggest hit song to date happened two years later. According to Billboard magazine, in the late spring of 2024, she had been ruminating on the idea of a frantic kind of love for a while. This is the story of "Sailor Song."
“When that person is so constant in your life, it’s kind of like you fall into it, and you have nothing else to grasp on to,” she tells Billboard. “It came from that desperate place.”
She tells the outlet that the chorus of the song just popped into her head: “Kiss me on the mouth and love me like a sailor.” As she worked on the lyrics and sang out loud at home, the singer-songwriter realized she wasn’t alone. “My door happened to be open, and my little sister walks by and says, ‘Oh, Gigi, that’s really awesome,” she recalls to Billboard.
Her little sister wasn’t the only one to fall in love with the song instantly. Perez uploaded bits and pieces of “Sailor Song” on TikTok for a few weeks, debuting the full song on July 26.
The response? Explosive. Fans loved the song, using it in their own videos, covering it, and remixing it until it was all over the platform. Before she knew it, “Sailor Song” was viral, with millions of streams and an organic, passionate fanbase.
“Her breakout lesbian crooner, ‘Sailor Song,’ scored big on streaming, sitting at No. 20 on Spotify U.S., underscoring its over 85M global streams on the platform,” Music Daily News writes.
What’s Next for Gigi Perez?
The success of “Sailor Song” landed the young artist a deal with Island Records.
With a new record label, “Sailor Song” climbing the charts, and her fanbase growing daily, Perez has big plans. She’s currently on her "I Have To See You Again Tour" with stops around the globe. Rumors have it that she has a new EP coming out too. And millions of us will be watching it all unfold along the way ... on TikTok, of course.
