ASU a cappella group Devil Clefs went viral over the weekend after the group posted a video singing a mashup of "idontwannabeyouanymore" and "when the party's over" by Billie Eilish on TikTok.
The video, which was recorded in a stairwell in the Music Building, has since garnered over 1.9 million likes and over 6 million views.
Milena Santiago, the sophomore studying fashion who wrote the arrangement of the mashup, said a representative from CAMPVS reached out to her through Instagram and invited the group to audition for FYG U Fest, which partnered with TikTok. The representative said Devil Clefs needed to create a video in order to compete for the chance to perform at the festival.
The group won the competition, and at the festival, Josette Pimenta, a TikTok creator, posted a video of the group singing on her TikTok account.
“From there, we got a good amount of followers — nothing crazy, but it was like, ‘Oh, this is cool,’” Santiago said. “When I uploaded our Billie Eilish video to YouTube, I decided to post a clip of it to TikTok since we had a bigger following on there, and (told viewers) to go watch the YouTube video. It slowly grew, and then it just blew up out of nowhere on TikTok.”
The video gained more popularity after Twitter user @lisbethrroxana shared it with the caption, “The smoothest, most angelic transition I’ve ever heard.”
The video was then shared by Scott Hoying, a member of the a cappella group Pentatonix.
“Something I just thought of in my head, and that our group was able to perform, somehow now is being heard from someone from Pentatonix, which is insane,” Santiago said.
Santiago said that people on Twitter tried to get Eilish to see the video, but Eilish has not reacted to it publicly on social media. But that didn't bother Santiago, who said she was more excited that Hoying noticed the video.
Santiago was inspired to write the arrangement after listening to Eilish’s songs repeatedly, she said.
“I literally just listened to them wherever I went, and I had it ingrained in my head and then I transferred it to notes,” Santiago said. “It's my first arrangement that I've ever made ... It was really just like hearing (the music) in my head and then finding the notes on the software.”
Santiago said the group increased its membership from 12 members last semester to 18 this semester, much larger than the five-person average for a cappella groups.
Alexa Siegler, a junior studying psychology and president of Devil Clefs, said the increase in membership has allowed the group's sound to improve.
“We really focused on finding people who were really passionate about singing a cappella music and that would translate to them being really committed to the group,” Siegler said. “We didn't just look for sheer talent.”
The group is made up of members from all majors, from biomedical engineering to medical microbiology.
Liora “Ducky” Hyman, a sophomore studying music therapy and member of Devil Clefs, said the group has become more close-knit this semester than previous semesters.
“Having that closeness in relationships with each other allows for more constructive criticism, and people don't get offended,” Hyman said. “Our dynamic is so different and for the better this year.”
Reach the reporter at tmlane3@asu.edu and follow @tmflane on Twitter.
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