Sea shanty about NZ settlers resurfaces about 190 years later
A sea shanty called
Wellerman is rising up the UK record charts about 190 years after the Weller family settled in Aotearoa.
The Longest Johns rendition of
Wellerman has made it into the official top 40 charts in Britain.
Before that, it was a viral sensation on TikTok, sung by Scottish postie Nathan Evans, who now has a record deal.
The song immortalises whaling family the Wellers, who settled in Dunedin in 1831.
RNZ tracked down Edward Weller s great-great grandson and name sake, Edward Ellison, who is a kaumātua at Ōtakou Marae in Dunedin.
TikTok sea shanty star quits job as postman as single crashes Top 10
Nathan Evans is one of the main figures of ShantyTok
Nathan Evans CREDIT: Nathan Evans/TikTok
The man behind the current TikTok sea shanty craze has quit his job as a postman after his single crashed into the Top 10.
Nathan Evans, 26, helped bring exposure to the craze on the social media app with his version of ‘Wellerman’.
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In a TikTok posted last week, Evans said he had quit his day job thanks to the social media trend. “Oh my God, I was a postman on Friday. I have just signed to the biggest record label in the world,” he said.
Viral sea shanty sensation Wellerman poised to be a smash hit walesonline.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from walesonline.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.