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Man in finance: from the sofa to David Guetta’s remix
Image caption Megan’s viral TikTok has been remixed by DJs including David Guetta, who will release a version on FridayArticle information
- Author, Eleanor Doyle
- Paper, BBC Newsbeat
-
7 hours ago
Here’s a test. Finish the sentence.
“I’m looking for a man in finance…”
If your brain added “with a trust fund. Six-five. Blue eyes,” congratulations. You are one of millions who have been heard by Megan Boni.
This is a sample of the viral song mocking the concept of the “ideal man” that she recorded in April and that took over TikTok in the following weeks.
Megan, better known as Girl on Couch, shared the video with the caption: “Did I just write the song of the summer?”
Forty million views later, it has inspired hundreds of remixes and parodies, with prominent names including Billie Eilish’s brother Finneas making their own videos based on the 19-second clip.
Now Megan hopes to storm the charts with a single she recorded alongside superstar DJ David Guetta.
But despite what she says on her TikTok, she tells BBC Newsbeat that she’s not actually looking for a tall banker with a deep wallet.
“I doubt we would work out,” she says.
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The 27-year-old New Yorker told Newsbeat that the idea for the meme came from dating app fatigue.
Tired of complaining about being single, she started jotting down some lyric ideas on her note-taking app.
“Dating apps are making dating so much more impossible because they are really raising everyone’s standards,” says Megan.
“So I was just trying to make fun of girls like me who complain about being single but then have a long list of impossible needs.”
Some people have complained that the track objectifies men, but Megan rejects the accusation.
“I think it’s so funny when these men say ‘If a guy wrote a song like that about a woman…’
“Guys write songs about women all the time,” she says.
“It’s a joke. I didn’t think there was a man with those criteria.”
Image caption, Megan recently flew to Las Vegas to perform alongside French DJ David Guetta
Although Megan says she “couldn’t be less interested in dating,” she also says she’s not too worried about launching a music career.
Universal Music Group – the record label behind some of the world’s biggest stars, including Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and Ariana Grande – offered her a publishing deal.
This means she can make some money from royalties from the song, which she says hasn’t been as profitable as some people assume.
“I made money from it, but not from using TikTok,” she says, which anyone can use for free.
Megan now has more than a quarter of a million followers on the app and told Newsbeat after posting the original video: “in the space of a week my life has been turned upside down.”
She says she also received an offer to do a full album, but decided to turn it down.
“I thought, ‘What makes you think I can write a song? What makes you think I could write an album?’” she says.
“I’m such an unserious person.
“I don’t fit in. I’m just not interested in writing music.”
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Instead, she’s happy to let the song have its moment online.
“The sequel is never as good as the original,” she says.
“There’s no way I can release another two-second song and have it blow up so much, so I’m not too stressed about doing it.
“So, in the summer, I’m going to ride the wave of music and party.”
So far it’s working out great for Megan, who recently flew to Las Vegas to perform the track alongside David Guetta and US dance duo The Chainsmokers.
“I keep thinking I can’t get any more excited,” she says. “And then new things keep happening.”
Once the hype dies down, she says, acting and comedy are what she really hopes to pursue.
“It was never my dream to be a musician,” she says.
“I’m really lucky that this happened, but I’m really trying to use this to do something I love.
“My dream would be to be on Saturday Night Live. That’s the goal.”
She admits she feels a little bad about her overnight success.
“Some artists try to get a record deal their whole life and I was sitting on the couch,” she says.
“But that’s how it happens, that’s how the internet works. It’s crazy.”
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