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Tones and I

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Tones and I
Tones and I in 2019
Tones and I in 2019
Background information
Birth nameToni Watson
Also known as
  • Tones
  • Tonah
BornMornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia
OriginFrankston, Victoria, Australia
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Singer
  • songwriter
Instrument(s)
Years active2014–present
Labels
Websitetonesandi.com

Toni Watson, known professionally as Tones and I, is an Australian indie pop singer-songwriter and musician. Her second single, "Dance Monkey", was released in May 2019 and reached number one in over 30 countries. In November of that year, she broke the record for the most weeks at number one on the ARIA Singles Chart by any artist with 16 weeks. By mid-January 2020, "Dance Monkey" had spent its 24th and final week at No.1, beating Bing Crosby's all-time Australian record for his version of "White Christmas", which spent 22 weeks (five months, namely June to October) at the top spot in 1943. "Dance Monkey" was accredited 9× platinum by ARIA for shipments of over 630,000 units. Tones was the most awarded artist at the ARIA Music Awards of 2019, winning four from eight nominations. Tones and I released her debut extended play, The Kids Are Coming, on 30 August 2019.

Life and career

Toni Watson grew up in Mount Martha on the Mornington Peninsula.[1][2] Conflicting reports stated she was born in 1993, or in 2000.[3]

She explained choosing a musical career: "One day I was at the park with my family, all my cousins and stuff, in Frankston... We were all just singing a song and my aunty was like 'oh guys, she can actually hold a note.' I think that's the earliest memory of someone actually pointing me out as someone that has an ability to sing. I was probably like 7 years old."[4]

Tones and I learned to play keyboards and drum pads while at secondary school.[4] She started busking in Melbourne and worked in a clothing store.[1][2] In 2009, as Toni Watson, she created a YouTube page and posted a cappella cover versions.[3] She performed local gigs and festivals, including the Let Go festival.[1] Tones was the vocalist for a duo in 2014,[1] and remembered: "I started out singing in small pubs and bars in Mornington, I was singing along to a guitarist until I ended up branching out on my own."[5] She explained her shift to a solo career: "I actually got made redundant from my retail job and with that money I bought an RC300 (loop station) and just started to try figure it all out."[4] She busked "up and down the east coast with her synthesisers and loop pedal, she has been building a loyal fanbase and captivating crowds with her genre-diverse style."[1]

In September 2017, the singer-songwriter travelled to Byron Bay to try busking there.[4][6] At an early performance, she met Jackson Walkden-Brown who became one of her talent managers about a month later.[4][6][7] The busking success led her to fully commit to her music career. The artist spent 2018 living between Walkden-Brown's home in the Gold Coast hinterland and in her van in Byron Bay, writing music and busking full-time.[6][8] Later that year she won the Battle of the Buskers at Buskers by the Creek.[4][9]

In February 2019, Tones and I signed with Bad Batch Records/Sony Music Australia and a co-management deal with Artists Only (owned by Walkden-Brown, ex-Aerials) and Lemon Tree Music (co-owned by Regan Lethbridge and David Morgan, both ex-Bonjah).[8][10][11] In that month she uploaded her debut single, "Johnny Run Away", to an Australian website, Unearthed, which publishes the music of unsigned artists.[12] The track was recorded with Australian producer, Konstantin Kersting.[13] AllMusic's Fred Thomas observed, "[it] became a viral sensation, racking up streams."[14]

"Johnny Run Away" was added to full rotation on Australian alternative radio station Triple J the following week and received high ratings from staff: Richard Kingsmill (four-and-a-half out of five stars), Tommy Faith (five stars) and Declan Byrne (four-and-a-half stars).[4][15] Natalie O'Driscoll of Blank Gold Coast described the track, "a melodic slice of Nordic-inspired electro-pop that tells a very important story."[9] Two weeks later, Tones and I officially released "Johnny Run Away".[12] It peaked at number 12 on the ARIA Singles Chart and achieved triple platinum status for shipments of over 210,000 units.[16][17]

On 10 May 2019, Tones and I released her second single, "Dance Monkey".[18] She recalled the track was "Written alone in a dark closet in not much more than 30 minutes."[6] Craig Mathieson of The Age felt, "It's pop writ large – catchy yet familiar, slightly ludicrous yet genuinely affecting."[19] It reached number one on the official music charts of over 30 countries, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.[20][21][22]

"Dance Monkey"'s music video was directed by Liam Kelly and Nick Kozakis.[23] In Australia, in November of that year, she broke the record for the most weeks atop the ARIA Singles Chart by any artist, with 16 weeks. This was previously held by Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" (15 weeks in 2017).[21] By mid-January 2020, "Dance Monkey" had spent 24 weeks at number one.[24] It was the first Australian song to reach number one on Spotify's global daily top 200 streaming chart.[25] On 8 February 2020, it equalled Post Malone's "Rockstar" for the most days at number one on the same chart.[26] As of 18 February 2020, "Dance Monkey" returned to the Spotify top spot and had spent 118 days at number one.[27]

In May 2019, Tones performed at the Big Pineapple Music Festival, as well as opening Splendour in the Grass 2019 as the Triple J Unearthed Splendour in the Grass competition winner,[28] where she broke the record for the biggest crowd of an opening set.[29][30] In July, she released a third single, "Never Seen the Rain", and announced the release of her debut six-track extended play, The Kids Are Coming (30 August 2019).[31] In September 2019, Tones and I performed "Dance Monkey" and "The Kids Are Coming" at the 2019 AFL Grand Final with 100,000 people in attendance.[32][33]

In January 2020, three of Tones and I's tracks were listed on the Triple J Hottest 100, 2019: "Dance Monkey" (No. 4), "Never Seen the Rain" (No. 15) and "Johnny Run Away" (No. 26).[34]

On 1 February of that year, she started her Kids Are Coming World Tour with five Laneway Festival dates in Australia and seven dates in North America.[35][36] Riff Magazine's Rachel Goodman caught her performance in San Francisco in mid-month, "[she] brought a palpable energy to the stage, which concertgoers enthusiastically reciprocated... [and] spoke about busking every day on the streets of Byron Bay in Australia and how she learned to communicate with audiences—and quickly capture people's attention."[37] A total of 52 dates (including another eight in North America in April) are due to continue through to July.[35][36]

Discography

Extended plays

Title Details Peak chart positions Certifications
AUS
[38] 		CAN
[39] 		DEN
[40] 		FIN
[41] 		FRA
[42] 		IRE
[17] 		NOR
[43] 		NZ
[44] 		SWE
[45] 		US
[46]
The Kids Are Coming 3 9 8 19 31 40 3 23 15 30

Singles

Title Year Peak chart positions Certifications Album
AUS
[16] 		DEN
[40] 		GER
[51] 		IRE
[17] 		NOR
[52] 		NZ
[53] 		SWE
[54] 		SWI
[55] 		UK
[56] 		US
[57]
"Johnny Run Away" 2019 12 — — 83 — — — — — —
  • ARIA: 2× Platinum[58]
 The Kids Are Coming
"Dance Monkey" 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4
[59]
"Never Seen the Rain" 7 — 79 21
[67]		 — 36
[68]		 69
[69]		 56 99 —
"The Kids Are Coming" 65 — — — — —[A] — — — —
"Bad Child"[73] 2020 — — — — — — — — — — Non-album singles
"Can't Be Happy All the Time"[73] — — — — — — — — — —
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

Notes

  1. ^ "The Kids Are Coming" did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number 24 on the NZ Hot Singles Chart.[72]

Other charted songs

Title Year Peak chart positions Album
AUS
[16] 		NZ
Hot
[72]
"Jimmy" 2019 79 29 The Kids Are Coming

Awards and nominations

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. For the 2019 awards, Tones and I was nominated for eight awards and won four.[74]

Year Nominee / work Award Result Ref.
2019 "Dance Monkey" Best Female Artist Won [75]
Breakthrough Artist Won
Best Pop Release Won
Song of the Year Nominated
Liam Kelly & Nick Kozakis for Tones and I – "Dance Monkey" Best Video Nominated
The Kids Are Coming Best Independent Release Won
Konstantin Kersting for Tones and I – "Dance Monkey" Engineer of the Year Nominated
Producer of the Year Nominated

Spotify Awards

Year Nominee / work Award Result Ref.
2020 Herself Biggest Increase in Fans – Female Artist Nominated [76]
Emerging Artist Won

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Tones and I: Music – Brisbane Qld". Raw Artists. Archived from the original on 23 December 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  2. ^ a b "The story behind viral hit of the year 'Dance Monkey'". iSing. 29 November 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  3. ^ a b Bond, Nick (23 November 2019). "Mystery over breakout music star Tones and I's real age". news.com.au. Archived from the original on 23 November 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Byrne, Declan (21 February 2019). "Meet Tones and I, the busker with the bop that got Unearthed buzzing". Home and Hosed. Triple J (Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)). Archived from the original on 9 April 2019. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  5. ^ "Tones And I Interview". Triple J Unearthed. 11 March 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2020. Note: user may have to click on "read interview" to access material
  6. ^ a b c d Coscarelli, Joe (13 February 2020). "What Is 'Dance Monkey,' and How Did It Take Over the World?". Diary of a Song. The New York Times. Retrieved 17 February 2020. Note: includes an embedded video interview by Joe Coscarelli, Alexandra Eaton, Antonio de Luca, Alicia DeSantis, Will Lloyd, Kaisha Murzamadiyeva and Sasha Portis.
  7. ^ "Dance Monkey How Australian Busker Tones and I Scored a Global Hit". Official Charts. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  8. ^ a b Brandle, Lars (14 October 2019). "When Jackson met Tones". The Industry Observer. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  9. ^ a b O'Driscoll, Natalie (28 February 2019). "Tones and I releases new single 'Johnny Run Away', and it's going gangbusters". Blank Gold Coast. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  10. ^ staff writer (5 March 2019). "Exclusive: Tones & I Signs Management Deal with Lemon Tree Music". themusic.com.au. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  11. ^ Brandle, Lars (5 August 2019). "How Lemon Tree Music turn buskers into global superstars". The Industry Observer. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  12. ^ a b "Tones and I". Triple J (Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)). Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  13. ^ Cashmere, Paul (14 November 2019). "Tones and I Producer Has Dabbled with the Rubens on New Song". Noise11.com. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  14. ^ Thomas, Fred. "Tones and I | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved 19 January 2020. Note: Thomas incorrectly gives Australian chart peak of number one for "Johnny Run Away".
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  16. ^ a b c Peaks of songs in Australia:
  17. ^ a b c "Discography Tones and I". irish-charts.com. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
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  59. ^ Trust, Gary (24 February 2020). "Roddy Ricch's 'The Box' Tops Hot 100 For Seventh Week; Dua Lipa Hits Top 5; Justin Bieber, The Weeknd Go Top 10". Billboard. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
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  61. ^ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank". Retrieved 25 February 2020.
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  66. ^ "Gold & Platinum". RIAA. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  67. ^ "IRMA – Irish Charts". Irish Recorded Music Association. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
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  70. ^ "ARIA Chart Watch #561". auspOp. 25 January 2020. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  71. ^ "New Zealand single certifications – Tones and I – Never Seen The Rain". Recorded Music NZ. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
  72. ^ a b "NZ Hot Singles Chart". Recorded Music NZ. 9 September 2019. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  73. ^ a b Jenke, Tyler (12 March 2020). "Tones And I Releases New Singles "Bad Child" and "Can't Be Happy All the Time"". Rolling Stone Australia. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  74. ^ "ARIA Awards: 2019 ARIA Awards Nominated Artists Revealed". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). 10 October 2019. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  75. ^ "2019 ARIA Award Winners Announced". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). 27 November 2019. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  76. ^ Reyes, Van (19 February 2020). "Conoce a todos los nominados a los Spotify Awards 2020". nacionrex.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 22 February 2020.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tones_and_I&oldid=946105780"