Dublin Indie Artist EFÉ Goes TikTok Viral Overnight

“A fan-fuelled clip sends her track ‘you say that i’m crazy’ past 100K streams, eight months after its initial release, triggering a sharp surge in social media followers and putting the Dublin singer at the front of alt-pop’s rising class.”

When EFÉ posted a 15-second TikTok from her bedroom last Saturday night, she didn’t expect to wake up viral. The track behind the clip, "you say that i’m crazy," had been out for eight months, its release campaign having long been wrapped. But by Monday morning, the song had pushed past 100,000 Spotify streams, her lifetime total had tipped 8.1 million, and 50,000 new listeners had found their way in.

Streaming spikes that late in a release cycle are rare. But once TikTok paired the song’s woozy hook with creators' late-night confessionals, EFÉ’s October single took on new life. Playlist curators followed: Fresh Finds, This Is Frequency, and a wave of smaller user-led roundups caught on. Spotify stats soared. So did her followers. And the press is now catching up to a moment that was quietly set in motion years ago.

She’s opened for JPEGMAFIA, Still Woozy, Paolo Nutini and DIIV. She signed to FADER Label early last year, joining a roster that includes Clairo. She’s fronted campaigns with Umbro, Lazy Oaf and UNIF. From the outside, EFÉ has long been carving a path that balances DIY instinct with undeniable style. But this latest chapter feels different.

EFÉ’s catalogue already includes two EPs, What Should We Do This Summer? (2020) and Vitamin C (2022), and a run of singles including "you say that i’m crazy" and "2000SEVEN." Across those releases, she’s built a sound that feels diaristic without leaning into formulaic. The past year has only tightened that approach through live shows, new collaborations, and now the kind of breakout moment that can’t be engineered.

EFÉ is part of a tight-knit circle that includes Aby Coulibaly, Monjola, and MOIO, the latter of whom also saw a TikTok-driven boost this year; and Jordan Adetunji, whose track "KEHLANI" surged across the app last spring, rounds out a small but growing list of Black-Irish artists breaking into the algorithm’s bloodstream. Social media virality isn’t a strategy so much as a spark and EFÉ’s moment feels like one that will sustain.

“The track was an honest note to self about how my love language is quality time,” she says from her home studio in London. “Seeing strangers turn that feeling into their own stories is really cool. It proves the internet can be a very human place.”

The Face has called her one of "Ireland’s genre-blurring hopes." and District Magazine praised her "pastel-hued world-building." But beyond the tags and tags-of-tags, EFÉ’s work feels defined by its own logic. Her visuals, often self-directed, stretch beyond the song; her references feel as likely to come from a YouTube rabbit hole as a runway. At festivals like Glastonbury, All Points East, Longitude, All Together Now and Electric Picnic, she’s proved the softness of her recordings doesn’t sacrifice impact on stage.

Behind the numbers sits a writer, producer, and creative director whose material feels as personal as a diary entry, but calibrated for the dancefloor. With a fanbase growing by the hour and a catalogue that resists easy categorisation, EFÉ is setting the pace for Ireland’s next wave.

EFÉ returns to Whelan’s in Dublin to perform at We’ve Only Just Begun Festival on Saturday 9 August, joining a stacked line-up of rising Irish artists. She’s also currently working on a new mixtape via FADER Label that deepens her dreamy, textured sound, folding in elements of waltz, electronic and indie-rock.