Lizzie Sharp | staff writer
2/4/2021
Senior music technology and vocal performance major, Vinny Marchi, is no stranger to the phenomenon of social media breeding opportunities for aspiring musicians.
He currently boasts over 400 thousand followers on the social media platform TikTok, and this number only seems to be growing.
Before his TikTok career, as long as he can remember, Marchi was singing anywhere and everywhere he could. Although, it was not until college that he realized he had a gift for opera, specifically falsetto.
“It just stuck, and I loved it,” Marchi said. He now considers himself an countertenor, a classical male singing part.
Marchi started uploading on his TikTok account in May 2020. He initially began posting for fun during quarantine lockdown, but it eventually gained traction with people all over the world.
His recent TikTok fame came when he uploaded a video singing a version of the “Habanera,” originally composed by Georges Bizet, that currently has 6.5 million views. From that point on, he began gaining a large following, and the number of views on his videos increased.
“It was absolutely insane,” Marchi said about his videos accumulating so many views. He went from having 100 thousand to 200 thousand followers in the span of two days, due to the overwhelming support he has gained.
“It is just a fun thing to do, but something that could also further my music career,” Marchi said. “When I hit 10,000 followers in the summer, I realized it could be used as a stepping stone to the next big thing…I made a classical album with some original songs, but mostly classical.”
Marchi tries to not categorize himself into a particular genre. “I want to create a lot of different kinds of music,” he said.
But, with opera being the most popular of his videos while gaining the most traction with his audience, this is a niche he continues to pursue.
“As more and more people started listening to my music, it occurred to me that it was a good time to release and make more,” Marchi said.
He recently released a single, “Lullaby for the Anxious,” on all streaming platforms. He writes and produces all of his own music and is planning on releasing a new single in the coming weeks.
“The response to ‘Lullaby for the Anxious’ has been overwhelmingly positive,” Marchi said.
He was able to promote this track using his new social media following. The track now has over 30 thousand streams on Spotify.
“Social media has disrupted the whole music industry as much as any other industry,” Marchi explained.
“It is possible to be all you need…The record label is not obsolete, but it may be approaching that. Social media has a huge part in this.” Marchi said.
Social media can also have a dark side including backlash and criticism. Marchi says he hasn’t experienced too much of this but does take some of it as a learning opportunity.
“It can actually be very motivating,” Marchi said when explaining comments aimed at his pronunciation of certain words in French or Italian.
“People all over the world are seeing your content. You need to be more cautious of what is being put out there,” Marchi said.
“TikTok is not the end goal. It’s a stepping stone…I’m going to show all of these people what I can do,” he explained.
Marchi has many goals for his future career, but for now, TikTok has been a way to release meaningful content to viewers.
He tries to post on TikTok every day since his video went viral.
The advice Marchi would give to people wanting to get started on social media is to post consistently and take pride in the work that they do.
“Try to look at content objectively from the eyes of someone that is just stumbling on your feed…and think ‘I’m proud of the thing I’m creating,’” Marchi explained.
Marchi can be found on TikTok @veryveryvinny.
