Feel Good Friday: Kristin Chenoweth Releases 'Popular' to the Populace | Playbill

Feel Good Friday Feel Good Friday: Kristin Chenoweth Releases 'Popular' to the Populace

Amid tense contract negotiations between Universal Music Group and TikTok, the original Glinda has stepped into the fray.

Kristin Chenoweth

Times may be hard, but there is still joy to be found, even after a long week. Sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of emotional release. Welcome to Playbill's Feel Good Friday feature.

This has been a tough week for social media creators and consumers. Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's largest music company, pulled the rights for all of their songs from TikTok the eye poppingly popular video platform that has dominated social media trends since 2020.

While the contract negotiations that lead to UMG pulling the plug are complex, the result was that, for millions of regular TikTok users, millions of songs were suddenly unavailable, with a countless stream of previously viral videos muted for having used a song that was recorded by UMG. Artists that had previously been ubiquitous on the platform, such as Taylor Swift, Noah Kahan, and BTS, were suddenly cut off from their fan bases.

Also in UMG's catalogue? The original Broadway cast album of Wicked. Cue a familiar face coming to the rescue.

Tony winner Kristin Chenoweth took to the app, where she had previously shared kooky snippets of her day to day life, to record an a cappella rendition of "Popular" from Wicked, providing fans across the globe with a new version of the song to use in their content until UMG and TikTok are able to return to the negotiating table.

The video, which sees Chenoweth decked out in a vividly pink sweater and a smile, was shared with a simple caption: "Heard this one isn't on TikTok anymore... here you go. You're welcome!"

Commenters have been thanking Chenoweth for the gift, with some noting that she still sounds almost exactly the same as she did when she originated the role of Glinda in the beloved musical 20 years ago. The audio has already been picked up by numerous content creators, with some even going back to apply the audio to videos that have been silenced, retroactively rendering Chenoweth the voice of viral videos gone by. Social media denizens are certainly saying "Thank Goodness!"

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