Fleur East chats to Nathan Evans, the man responsible for the Sea Shanty phenomenon

On Friday, Fleur East released her latest Rap Roulette which was inspired by the sea shanty trend that has swept through the internet this week.

‘Soon May The Wellerman Come’ is a classic sea shanty which was sang by the crews of the whaling boats working for Weller, the biggest whaling and export company out of New Zealand.

Sea shanties have been gaining some momentum on social media app Tik Tok for some time, but Nathan Evans’ version of the Wellerman tune made the movement become a global online sensation and saw the rise of ShantyTok.

The former postie, who has now given up his day job to focus on a career in music after signing a record deal with Polydor Records, joined the Hits Radio Breakfast team to chat about how the social media phenomenon has changed his life.

On Fleur’s Rap Roulette, Nathan said: “I think that’s amazing, I’m going to be singing that more than the actual Wellerman!”

On the track already having over 8 million views online, Nathan added: “It’s absolutely crazy. Last Friday I was posting letters and today I’m posting about my new single being out!”

“Andrew Lloyd Webber duetted my video the other day and I was like, ‘What is going on?’”

“I started uploading videos to Tik Tok back in July, and somebody said ‘I think you would be good at a sea shanty, it’s called ‘Leave Her Johnny’ and the ‘Wellerman’ so I just wrote them down in my notepad as suggestions and here we are!”

The song was recorded by Bristol band The Longest Johns in late 2019 and is climbing up the charts, however a remix of Nathan’s version by 220Kid and Billen Ted is now a trending song on The UK Chart Show.

Nathan added that he was keen to start making more music. He said, “As long as people love it and it makes people happy then I’m all for it. I’m happy as long as other people are happy.”

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