People Are Baffled That Tones And I’s ‘Dance Monkey’ Wasn’t Auto-Tuned
"I thought the song is autotuned, turns out she is THE autotune."
Tones And I’s globe-conquering single ‘Dance Monkey’ has made music history many times over since it first snuck onto the airwaves last year.
She broke the record for the longest run at the top of the ARIA singles charts, with the track sitting in the top spot for a staggering 24 weeks. Globally, it was even bigger:ย the track reached #1 in 30 countries and gained over two billion streams since its release.
Despite only being around for a few months, Toni Watson had suddenly become one of Australia’s biggest music exports ever.
Her performance at Splendour in the Grass helped to kick her career along — and it was around then that some punters began to puzzle over her distinctive voice.ย After the four-and-a-half minute clip of her singing ‘Dance Monkey’ went viral, gaining over 43 million views, the comments were flooded with people apparently very confused that her vocals were real — and not created by studio wizadry and autotune.
The girl that sings Dance Monkey really sounds like that in real life. Thought her voice was tweaked
— ๐ฟ๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ (@AshTBL) October 24, 2019
I thought this song called 'dance monkey' is autotuned, turned out the singer's voice is real omg she sounds cool
— ๐๐๐ฏ๐ฏ๐๐ (@lizziella18) December 16, 2019
The questioning continued in later months: in November, Tones and I made her US TV debut onย The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon —ย which racked up over 60 million views. The comments under this performance echoed those from the Splendour video.
“She has a cartoon voice. I thought it was electronic effect,” wrote one person. “I thought the song is autotuned turns out she is THE autotune,” commented another.
And this week, it happened again. Watson appeared onย The Ellen Showย to perform the track, once again causing new listeners to lose their collective shit.ย “My mind cannot accept this song can be sung by someone without autotune and still be really good,” wrote one person, aptly summing up the entirety of the comments section.
WAIT STFU THAT DANCE MONKEY SONG IS AN ACTUAL PERSONS VOICE …
— ๐ (@heslovedshe) February 24, 2020
To be fair to the poor lost souls of the internet, Tones does have a very distinctive voice — one which is replicated acrossย allย of her tracks, both in the studio and live versions — so the confusion is understandable.
Whatever the case, it’s certainly not stopping Tones’ success. Watch her performance onย Ellenย below, and scope out her upcoming tour dates —ย she’ll be criss-crossing Australia in May, playing venues like Sydney’s Enmore Theatre and Melbourne’s Forum Theatre.