Liberty Student USes Singing Talents To Go Viral On TikTok
Millions of people scroll through TikTok, the popular video-sharing social network app, and a strong, high-pitched tone floods through phone speakers as Liberty’s own Anna Traylor appears on screen singing a classic from Disney’s “Frozen II” soundtrack.
Within 24 hours, Traylor went viral on TikTok after nonchalantly deciding to film herself singing “Into the Unknown” in the racquetball courts in LaHaye Fitness Center. Traylor, a junior pursuing her bachelor’s degree in theater arts with a dance minor, was speechless as she sat in class watching millions like and comment on her video.
“I work for intramural basketball for Liberty, and with COVID, we found ourselves with a lot of games off where I would escape to the racquetball courts and sing,” Traylor said. “One day, I went in there, and I had never really filmed before…but something compelled me to, and I posted the video I took that evening.”
Traylor decided the racquetball courts would be the perfect place to sing not only because of the isolation they provide but because of their ability to amplify the clarity and echo of her voice.
“During my class, I noticed that it just started blowing up… and that night, it had half a million views and my account had over 30,000 new followers,” Traylor said. “It took only that weekend for me to hit over a million likes on that video.”
People from across the globe began commenting and asking Traylor to sing different songs. As she began fulfilling these requests, her other videos began gaining traction and hitting millions of views.
“After a while, I started getting paid from TikTok for my videos,” Traylor said. “They asked me to apply for a TikTok creators fund… so I applied and was approved, and they started paying me in small amounts.”
The TikTok creator fund rewards creators for doing what they do best —curating entertaining TikTok videos. As in Traylor’s case, after users reach a certain amount of likes and followers, this application is extended to different content creators.
“Now, I get paid for singing and that’s what I’ve always dreamed about,” Traylor said. “My most viral one was just in February when I posted a video of me singing a bunch of different Disney princess singing voices and it hit over 13.2 million views with 3.9 million likes.”
In her most viral video, Traylor imitated the Disney princesses Giselle, Aurora, Cinderella, Snow White and Ariel. She explained that the consistency of her TikTok videos has opened the door for both opportunities and more routine vocal training.
“It’s easy to feel discouraged in your abilities when you’re in a program surrounded by other amazing vocalists, but TikTok has been an affirmation for me that I actually can do it, and I definitely feel more recognized for my gifts,” Traylor said. “Through fulfilling some of the challenging requests others ask me to sing, I can actually train my voice to sing the more difficult songs and (push) my voice to do something I wouldn’t have tried otherwise.”
Traylor explained that her dream in the future is to be a Disney voice actor. In the past year, Traylor has been working on writing a few of her own songs to share with the world in hopes of using her platform to open doors for her future.
“It’s exciting to begin to see my options and where they can take me because of this platform now,” Traylor said. “I could also see myself releasing my own music… I have all these ideas bouncing around in my head, and I truly want to use all of it to just create a pathway for me to move forward with my dreams.”
To keep up with Traylor as she pursues her dreams and grows in her gift of singing, you can follow her on TikTok @star.eyes4you or on Instagram @aetrayy.
Jessi Green is the Asst. Feature Editor. Follow her on Twitter at @jessigreen0.