"Sugar Crash!" (stylized as "SugarCrash!") is a song written, produced, and performed by Canadian musician

ElyOtto Elliott Ferrous-Martin Platt (born February 24, 2004), known professionally as Elyotto (stylized as ElyOtto), is a Canadian musician. He is best known for his song "SugarCrash!", which went viral on TikTok in early 2021. Life and career Elliot ...

. It was released on August 25, 2020. A remix featuring

Kim Petras Kim Petras (born 27 August 1992) is a German singer and songwriter based in Los Angeles, California. Between 2016 and 2020, she released music as an independent artist under her own imprint, BunHead Records, before signing with Amigo and Republ ...

and

Curtis Waters Abhinav Bastakoti (born December 20, 1999), known by his stage name Curtis Waters, is a Canadian-American musician and songwriter. He is known for his self-produced 2020 debut single " Stunnin'". He is the first Nepal-born musician to attain inte ...

was released on April 23, 2021.

Background and composition

At one minute and 20 seconds long, the song is in the key of

F major F major (or the key of F) is a major scale based on F, with the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative minor is D minor and its parallel minor is F minor F minor is a minor scale based on F, consis ...

with a tempo of 98

beats per minute Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ( ...

. It went viral on the video-sharing app

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

in 2021. "SugarCrash!" incorporates

hyperpop Hyperpop is a loosely-defined music movement and microgenre that predominantly originated in the United Kingdom during the early-to-mid 2010s. It is characterized by a maximalist or exaggerated take on popular music, and artists within the genre ...

with many sound effects, distorted

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

, and high-pitched vocals, consisting of two choruses, a verse, and a bridge. Platt claimed in a

Genius Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for future works, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabiliti ...

interview that the song, made with

GarageBand GarageBand is a line of digital audio workstations developed by Apple Inc. for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS devices that allows users to create music or podcasts. GarageBand is developed by Apple for macOS, and was once part of the iLife software s ...

, was a

soundfont SoundFont is a brand name that collectively refers to a file format and associated technology that uses sample-based synthesis to play MIDI files. It was first used on the Sound Blaster AWE32 sound card for its General MIDI support. SoundFon ...

test for ''

Pokémon Black and White and are 2010 role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. They are the first installments in the fifth generation of the Pokémon (video game series), ''Pokémon'' vid ...

''. Platt also stated that the song covered many of his issues; how tired he was of the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, his future, and his

gender dysphoria Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used until ...

Reception

Vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...

's Justin Curto wrote: "As a song, 'SugarCrash!' tries to solve the very problem it's about. It's nothing new in hyperpop, which often uses buoyant productions to address darker themes. But on another, equally self-aware level, the song works so well because it's also about exactly what it sounds like. It's a hyperactive song about being full of pent-up energy; a brain-splitting song that, at one point, contemplates splitting one's own brain". The song also received praise from ''Billboard'' author Joe Lynch, who described it as "a diaristic, candy-coated slice of teenage dissatisfaction." Following the song's success, at least seven record labels reached out to ElyOtto before he signed to

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

Chart performance

The song debuted at number 30 on the

Hot Rock & Alternative Songs Hot Rock & Alternative Songs (formerly known as Rock Songs and Hot Rock Songs) is a record chart published by ''Billboard'' magazine. From its debut on June 20, 2009, through October 13, 2012, the chart ranked the airplay of songs across alternati ...

chart, having spent 19 weeks-and-counting on the chart in total, peaking at number 10. It later debuted at number 23 on the

Bubbling Under Hot 100 Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...

for the week of March 20, 2021, and peaked at number 59 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, as well as number 126 on ''Billboard''s

Global 200 The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by the World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF), the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. According to WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a "relatively large unit of land or w ...

. The song also earned ElyOtto a spot on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

''s ''Breakthrough 25'' chart for the months of February and March 2021 at numbers 15 and 17, respectively, as well as a spot on ''Billboard''s

Emerging Artists The ''Billboard'' Twitter Real-Time charts were four interactive ''Billboard'' music magazine charts debuted on May 27, 2014. The charts ranked trending songs from popular and emerging artists based on how often they are mentioned in messages call ...

chart for four weeks, peaking at number 36.

Music video

On April 23, 2021, a visualizer was released along with the remix. A music video for the original song was released on May 4, 2021. Both videos sit at a combined 23.5 million views as of September 2022.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2021 songs 2021 singles Transgender-related songs Hyperpop songs Songs about the COVID-19 pandemic