Newcastle pop star enters vial Halsey TikTok debate with passionate rant

A Newcastle pop star has entered the viral debate over the role of TikTok in the music industry.

The controversial topic, which centres around artists being pressured to create viral videos by their record labels, was stoked by American singer Halsey earlier this week.

The 'Without Me' singer, who has sold millions of records and was named as one of Time's most 100 influential people in the world, went rogue to slam her record label to 4.6 million followers on TikTok.

She said: "Basically I have a song I really want to release ASAP but my record label won't let me.

"I've been in this industry for eight years and sold over 165 million records and my record company is saying that I can't release it unless they can fake a viral moment on TikTok.

"Everything is marketing and they are doing this to basically everyone these days. I just wanna release music, man.

"I deserve better to be honest. I'm tired."

The video sent social media into overload with pop stars across the world sharing their thoughts.

Some supported Halsey whilst others criticised the star for not understanding her privilege as a huge artist.

Now, Newcastle singer L Devine has had her say on the matter.

The Whitley Bay-born singer is a rising star with 57,000 TikTok followers of her own.

Posting a rant on the app, L Devine said: "I've been seeing loads of videos around the Halsey situation about her label making her make TikToks and the video that went viral of her complaining about it and not releasing her music.

"A lot of people have mixed reviews about it and think it's a marketing ploy.

"I used to be signed to a major label and I'm telling you the TikTok and social media s**t is so real and I do think it's genuine.

"I used to get a weekly report of my social media stats as a column of numbers and some weeks they'd be green and going up and another time they would be red and you'd see them trickling down and losing growth. That's what I was defined by.

"I'd read those numbers and define my self-worth on those numbers.

"It would also say which posts performed best, like this week this photo of Liv with her t**s out performed better than any of her music.

"When I signed a record deal it was about being a musician and it's really damaging to be told that TikTok is the only thing that matters to an artist now.

"I get where people are coming from, but I also think it's important big people with big platforms use their voice to talk about this matter.

"It's crazy. It's f***ing the music industry up."