In 2025, just like it was ten or five years ago, everyone can at least try to become famous on social media (if that's what they crave, of course). Sometimes, it’s just a matter of a single video that goes viral and gains millions of views during one night. It seems that the key to success is simple: just dance to a trending sound and here you go—thousands of followers, fans, record deals, and brand partnerships with expensive sponsored posts.

But the reality is quite different. In this article, we’ll give you a few examples of famous people whose first minutes of fame sparked on social media but who also managed to maintain it through years owing to their hard work and dedication. 

Viral Social Media Moments That Gained Traction 

Sigma Boy (TikTok & Reels -> Billboard Hot Dance / Pop Songs) 

What started as an average catchy song on TikTok (which are plenty on the platform) eventually ended up on the Billboard Hot Dance/Pop Songs chart at 7 out of 15. 

Sigma Boy, a song made by Russian schoolgirls-slash-bloggers, has been among top tracks on TikTok for months and quickly went viral due to its catchy and somewhat nonsensical lyrics centered around the concept of a "Sigma Boy", described by the artists as a very self-confident boy who doesn't need anyone but whom all girls adore.

 The song's viral success has been largely attributed to word-of-mouth on TikTok and various trends involving the track, including a popular public transport challenge started by a German TikToker. 

As of early August 2025, Sigma Boy garnered:

• On TikTok, there are about 380 million posts featuring the "Sigma Boy" sound. 
• On Instagram Reels, videos using "Sigma Boy" as the sound have amassed millions of likes and comments. For example, some reels by a user named streichbruder have over 3 million likes and tens of thousands of comments across different posts tagged with #sigmaboy and related hashtags.

Monkeys Spinning Monkeys 

"Monkeys Spinning Monkeys" by Kevin MacLeod, a royalty-free music composer, became one of the most used TikTok sounds with almost 30 million videos but the composer remains largely unknown despite the tune's huge reach.

The song was released on February 3, 2014 and as of April 2025, there are about 2 million videos on TikTok featuring this sound. The track garnered over 14 million streams on Spotify, even if it was particularly popular in Latin America and Indonesia. The track has got a huge viral reach: it was a top sound for years, frequently used in memes and lighthearted videos worldwide. 

Despite free Creative Commons licensing, MacLeod has earned over seven figures mainly from international revenue streams. This viral case shows just how freely licensed music can become a ubiquitous soundtrack to viral video culture on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels.

Chocolate Rain

Another example on this list is the viral video and/or song "Chocolate Rain" released in April 2007 on YouTube by Tay Zonday (a non-celebrity at the time), which started as a self-produced video that became an internet meme, leading to record deals and brand ad deals. In summer 2007, the video was ranked the hottest viral video of summer and won the 2008 YouTube Award in the Music category a year later. Viral exposure led to record deals, brand partnerships, and appearances in TV and marketing campaigns.

As of May 2025, the video has amassed over 140 million views and Tay’s YouTube channel has attracted over 1 million subscribers. The key to success here is that the song is a metaphor for institutional racism and has enduring cultural relevance beyond early internet meme fame, with ongoing public interest and live performances. 

We Are Number One

Another one on the list is the song "We Are Number One" from the children's show LazyTown, originally not widely known, but became a viral meme that led to increased media appearances and charity campaigns related to the performer. 

The song was released in 2014, in the "Robbie’s Dream Team" episode. However, its viral potential has been overlooked for two years, and only in late 2016 the song became an internet meme. Nonetheless, it sparked a crowdfunding campaign raising over $100,000 to support lead actor Stefán Karl Stefánsson's cancer treatment. 

Numerous remixes, parodies, and meme videos on YouTube and social media that came after additionally boosted exposure well beyond the show’s original audience. At this point, the official LazyTown YouTube channel hosts multiple versions and compilations of the song, sustaining interest years after the viral peak.

Celebrities Who Made It Thanks to Social Media 

Addison Rae

Addison struggled to shake off the "just a TikToker" label. She tried YouTube, podcasts, a beauty brand, acting, but the criticism didn’t stop. Addison made her way to fame as a conventional TikTok creator who started with dances and lip-sync videos but, ironically, her TikTok background is what actually slowed down her career as a musician.

For some time, she quit TikTok and migrated to YouTube and then Instagram, appeared in movies, worked with Netflix, launched her own podcast and even beauty brand. But despite all those efforts, she nonetheless had this "just a TikToker" label, and not in a good way, as it often came along with hate and even bullying, even though she made significant amounts of money off TikTok and was one of three biggest TikTok stars. 

2024 was a game-changing year for her, though. Addison released a nostalgic dreamy pop album (very Lana Del Rey-ish) called Diet Pepsi. Since then, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that she was no longer treated unseriously. Addison Rae collaborated with Charlie XCX as part of Charlie’s Brat album promo campaign and finally earned her place in the music industry, breaking the glass ceiling of a next-door just-TikTok girl. 

Charli ХСХ

Unlike Addison Rae, Charli XCX doesn’t have a blogging background. She, like many artists from the late 2000s, released her music on MySpace and SoundCloud and even performed at London rave parties. Her first big online success came in 2020, when during lockdown she made the album How I’m Feeling Now together with fans, interacting in live streams. The whole process was documented and broadcast on social media, and inside the vinyl release, there was a huge collage of fanart. 

In 2024, she turned TikTok into her playground: the color of the year, toxic Brat Green, political posts, the Brat track as the anthem of summer 2024, feminist statements, and the track Apple, which everyone danced to. Eventually, the internet was hooked, Zoomers discovered Charli, and she finally earned a Grammy.

By the way, color choice was determined by Charli's effort to go against the industry’s standards to showcase female artists' bodies on album covers.

Bella Poarch

Bella Poarch rose to fame on TikTok in 2020 with the most liked video on the platform, a lip-sync to Millie B's M to the B, garnering over 57 million likes. She quickly amassed over 80 million TikTok followers in under eight months, which made her the third-most followed TikTok account.

@bellapoarch To the 🐝 🐝 🐝 #fyp ♬ M to the B - Millie B

After her social media success, she launched a music career signing with Warner Records in 2021. Her debut single, Build a Bitch, marked her entry into the music industry, followed by a 2022 EP Dolls that blended pop with darker themes and earned critical praise for its artistic growth.

Bella continued to release singles and collaborate, notably teaming up with Lauv in 2023 for the pop anthem Crush, which pretty much expanded her musical reach beyond TikTok fame.

Dixie D'Amelio

Dixie started her rise alongside her sister Charli on TikTok, signing with United Talent Agency in early 2020. She quickly leveraged her viral status by launching a podcast with Charli and transitioning into music. Her debut single Be Happy released in June 2020 achieved over 86 million Spotify streams, followed by other singles like One Whole Day and Psycho featuring Rubi Rose, which charted on US pop charts. 

To establish her name in the music industry, Dixie signed a record deal with HitCo Entertainment in 2020 and released her debut album A Letter to Me in 2022. Forbes reported she earned $2.9 million in one year from endorsements and merchandise, which helped her become one of the highest earning TikTok stars. Dixie has also ventured into acting and continues to expand her media presence with docuseries and web reality shows.

The Gregory Brothers

The Gregory Brothers are a musical quartet that got famous due to comedy music and auto-tuned viral videos on their YouTube channel Schmoyoho. Fifteen years ago, they pioneered viral music videos like the Bed Intruder Song, which amassed over 141 million YouTube views and even charted on the Billboard Hot 100.

Their Winning song won a 2012 Comedy Award, and they have collaborated with artists like Weird Al Yankovic and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. They gained mainstream recognition for turning viral internet moments into catchy songs, earning them commercial deals, publishing offers, and media projects.

Joji (Filthy Frank) 

TV Filthy Frank was a show on the edge of absurdity: bathing in a tub of noodles, hair cakes, "hunting" sandwiches in parks, and urban legends about space herpes. Joji Miller didn’t just follow trends; it'd be more correct to say that he created them. In fact, his channel birthed the Harlem Shake meme in 2013, the first truly massive YouTube viral hit. 

Meanwhile, he released tracks as Pink Guy, trashy parodies of pop music that still made it into the charts and sold out venues. In late 2017, Miller shut down the project due to health issues and switched to making music seriously. Under the name Joji, he developed a recognizable lo-fi R&B sound and signed with the 88 Rising label. Today his songs go viral on TikTok on their own, while he keeps his social media presence minimal. In 2018, he released his debut album Ballads which debuted at number 3 in the Billboard 200 chart and 1 in the R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart.

The Slow Dancing in the Dark track has been massively successful on TikTok. 

Troye Sivan

Just like Justin Bieber or Shawn Mendes, Troye Sivan started his music career with video blogging. The earliest surviving video shows 13-year-old Troye singing an acappella version of Tell Me Why. Around the same time, he released his debut album. 

But unlike Bieber or Mendes, Sivan transitioned naturally from blogger to artist, his audience grew up alongside him. His peak came during the pandemic, when Gen Z was searching for a new role model, and his 2023 album Something to Give Each Other became an ode to parties and real-life connection after lockdowns. 

The music industry experts explain his popularity not just with him being in the right time and right place during the pandemic. Troye’s openness and no-masks attitude isn’t the only reason for success, either. More prosaic things like trendwatching and understanding how to use trends in his content have contributed a lot: Troye participated in plenty of challenges on social media, made collaboration videos with Tyler Oakley and made cover songs of various artists that gained thousands of views.

Lil Nas X

In 2020, Lil Nas X was proclaimed by the media as a "king of social media" who changed the music marketing game entirely. He reached fame not through Instagram or TikTok but a non-visual social platform X where celebrities usually fear to tread.

Choosing country music for Old Town Road was strategic: it simply meant less competition in the charts. His single ended up on number 1 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart and stuck there for 19 weeks, which was an absolute success as the track was released with no assistance from record labels; it wasn’t even on streaming platforms and people needed to download it from YouTube. 

For some, his fame might seem like a lucky break, but experts say it’s the understanding of social media algorithms that made Lil Nas X famous. He bets on country charts because the competitiveness in rap and hip-hop charts is huge. He has also leveraged the popularity of X to promote the release of his single. 

The Secret Sauce of Social Media Fame Is Now Different

Over time, the formula for success on social media hasn’t really changed: be as open as possible, do what you genuinely enjoy, occasionally provoke, but don’t rely on luck, study the latest platform algorithms (and change producers when the time is right). But there’s one catch: now, everyone is doing this or at least trying to. Everyone gets their minute of fame, and it’s all too easy to get lost in this endless noise of notifications and updates.

The stars who rise from bloggers to magazine covers, claim spots on the charts (and stay there for the long haul), and earn Grammy nominations are the ones who have truly stood the test of time. Because social media is neither a magic pill nor a quick path to stardom; it’s an extra full-time job.