How Nashville and TikTok Influenced Avenue Beat's Rise to Stardom
About two years ago, I met the girls of Avenue Beat during a music meeting at my office. Immediately upon entering the green room where Sam Backoff, Savana Santos and Sami Bearden were gearing up for an intimate Q&A and acoustic performance, I could tell they were special. The trio had such a charming familiarity about them that I even asked Savana in particular if I knew her. She told me she “gets that a lot,” which wasn’t surprising at all. They were extremely talkative, very humble, and endearingly awkward, which made them so relatable, it felt like I was hanging out with an extended group of friends.
As everyone settled in, I was under the assumption the performance would be a standard country show. The ladies are signed to Valory Music, a sub-label of the powerhouse Big Machine Label Group, which is home to other iconic country artists like Tim McGraw, Florida Georgia Line, Lady A and formerly Taylor Swift. Little did I know I was about to witness a soulful, thoughtful series of pop songs from their self-titled EP, featuring nothing but their voices and a ukulele. It wasn’t quintessentially “pop”, as there was definitely a realness singular to their production and songwriting, but it signified their Nashville roots. The country influence was audible in every track and lent an authentic storytelling quality to their music.
During the pandemic, the ladies have been dropping TikTok gems, the most notable being last summer’s “F2020”, a song that serves as a middle finger to the year that made us and broke us.
Although the girls live and flex their creative juices out of Nashville, Tenn., they’re Illinois natives. Sam and Savana have known each other since they were tiny and the two met Sami at theater camp. After graduating high school, the girls packed up and moved to Music City to perfect their craft and find their sound. In a 2020 feature, Sam told Wonderland, “Nashville has shaped our songwriting the most. We learned how to appreciate a well-written song, how to tap into our emotions in a session, and how we can always be learning from everyone we work with along the way. Nashville has such a heart for the song. It’s definitely pushed us to continue bettering ourselves and our music.”
During the pandemic, the ladies have been dropping TikTok gems, the most notable being last summer’s “F2020”, a song that serves as a middle finger to the year that made us and broke us. The TikTok, originally posted with the caption, “day 1 of tryna get this song we wrote to pop off so our manager will let us release it lol heLP”, catapulted into a viral phenomenon their management team likely couldn’t keep up with. To date, the original post has over 17 million views and was even named the song of the year by The New York Times.
Avenue Beat’s latest is “WOMAN”, a catchy, feminist anthem born out of a bout of writer’s block. Lead singer Savana Santos sings about her girlfriend being her muse, and it’s a rousing, electrifying song about the beauty and magic of women. It’s empowering and is catching fire on TikTok once again, with fans celebrating their power and what makes them special. If “F2020” was any indication of what Sam, Savana, and Sami are capable of, “WOMAN” is bound to see a similar virality.
The trio will continue to touch fans with their genuine writing and knack for DIY-ing: they write and produce everything in-house, create and animate their own lyric videos, and design cover art for singles and EPs, making their final products feel all the more personal. Avenue Beat will be artists to watch as they find success on TikTok and beyond.
