2021 / Video / TikTok duet and communal singalong

The Wellerman Sea-Shanty Wave

Soon may the Wellerman come—and, for a few months, everybody on the internet knew the harmonies.

Watch Nathan Evans’s official Wellerman video

The original is off-site. HAHrchives preserves the story and a route back to it.

What happened

The song’s call-and-response structure made it feel built for the duet button. A line arrived, a new voice joined, then another, until the platform was full of sea shanties, faux sailors, and people discovering they had unexpectedly strong opinions about maritime folk music.

Where it came from

Scottish singer Nathan Evans posted himself singing the traditional New Zealand whaling song “Wellerman” on TikTok in late 2020. People began adding harmonies through duets, turning one voice into a rolling remote choir.

Why it mattered

Wellerman was a pandemic-era internet mood in miniature: collaborative without requiring anyone to be in the same room, nostalgic for a world almost nobody had lived in, and much more joyful than an algorithm should have been able to manufacture.

How it spread

The first clips jumped from TikTok to Twitter, YouTube, streaming charts, news coverage, and official releases. Evans’s version became a global hit while ShantyTok briefly made group singing feel like a native social-media format.

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