This story was originally published on Passionfruit.
We’re reaching out to some popular creators to get their best tips and tricks for success and better understand the ups and downs of life as a trailblazer on the internet.
This week, we caught up with Francis Karel, a singer-songwriter who has seen viral success on TikTok. Karel’s most popular videos include reactions to his powerful singing voice from unsuspecting viewers on the video chat roulette site Omegle. Karel’s Omegle videos, alongside other songwriting content, have attracted over 2.3 million followers on TikTok, 800,000 followers on Instagram, and 162,000 followers on YouTube.
Karel said he fell in love with pop music and started writing music as a child growing up in Jakarta, Indonesia. Karel said after making a connection with a record executive at an Indonesian music festival, he decided to take a leap of faith and move to the United States.
Now 23 years old and based in Los Angeles, Karel has pursued a career in songwriting, citing musical influences from artists like Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeren, and BTS.
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