"Stunnin'" is a song by Canadian-American musician

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 ...

, released on May 19, 2020 as his debut single. The song features Canadian musician Harm Franklin and was produced by Decz. The official music video was directed and edited by Ryan Tempke. 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 ...

, becoming the breakthrough hit of both artists.

Background

While a student in

UNC Greensboro The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG or UNC Greensboro) is a public research university in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. UNCG, like all members of the UNC system, is a stand-a ...

and working at

Tropical Smoothie Cafe Tropical Smoothie Cafe, also referred to as Tropical Smoothie, or Tropical, is a restaurant franchise in the United States. In addition to smoothies, the cafes offer sandwiches, wraps, salads, flat breads, and introduced bowls to their food line ...

, Curtis Waters studied the promotion methods of viral hits on TikTok, such as that of

Lil Nas X Montero Lamar Hill (born April 9, 1999), known by his stage name Lil Nas X ( ), is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He rose to prominence with the release of his country rap single " Old Town Road", which first achieved viral popul ...

's "

Old Town Road "Old Town Road" is the debut single of American rapper Lil Nas X, first released independently in December 2018. After gaining popularity, the single was re-released by Columbia Records in March 2019. Lil Nas X also recorded a remix with America ...

" and The BoyBoy West Coast's "

U Was at the Club (Bottoms Up) "U Was at the Club (Bottoms Up)" is a song by American rapper The Boyboy West Coast. First previewed in September 2018, it went viral in early 2019 via the video-sharing app TikTok, following which it was released on April 19, 2019, as his debut s ...

". He has explained that he recorded "Stunnin'" because "I was just in a bad mood, trying to make some stupid shit and cheer up."

Release and promotion

In early April 2020, Waters uploaded his first video on TikTok, of him and his brother dancing to the song in front of their garage. He continued to post similar clips featuring the song, propelling it to recognition. The success of the song led to Waters receiving many record deals, including one with

BMG Rights Management BMG Rights Management Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, GmbH (also known simply as BMG) is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a Music publisher (popular music), music publisher and a rec ...

which he settled for. "Stunnin'" was released to streaming services in May 2020. By October 2023, the song had amassed over 300 million streams on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

. The song was used on a

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and dessert at d ...

commercial to promote their Cheesesteak Melts.

Charts

Certifications

References

{{reflist 2020 debut singles 2020 songs BMG Rights Management singles Pop-rap songs