With over 2.1 million followers on TikTok, Elon University senior Nik Salah — also known as judyhoppsl0vr69 — expanded his digital presence by releasing original music.
Salah’s TikTok page primarily features satirical comedy videos, often centered around the Zootopia character Judy Hopps. However, Salah began posting snippets of his songwriting over the summer.
He released his debut single, “Midwest’s Best,” on Nov. 1, and it garnered over 165,000 streams in its first four days on Spotify.
“When I woke up to the numbers, it shocked me to my core,” Salah said. “I did not think that people wanted to hear a song from judyhoppsl0vr69, and I think that that's still the truth for a lot of people.”
As of Nov. 29, the song has 366,290 streams and has been added to over 33,000 playlists on Spotify. There are over 1,640 TikTok videos using the song — including one posted by Elon University.
Since the song’s release, Salah said he has been touched by the amount of heartfelt messages and comments he’s received.
“I've been writing for three years, and I've just been too scared to share,” Salah said. “This summer, I was like, ‘If I can post about a cartoon rabbit and my infatuation with her, I can post about this.’”
This past summer, Salah spent time in London where he decided to write one song each day. The writing exercise led him to revisit lyrics he had previously written and by the end of the day, he had the basis for “Midwest’s Best.”
“All of my writing is very drenched in nostalgia, and it's very yearning, and it's very messy,” Salah said. “I write a lot about my childhood and about how I was raised, and the idea that home kind of haunts me.”
“Midwest’s Best” is a lyrically driven, bittersweet, folksy “love letter” to the places and the people Salah grew up with in his Michigan hometown. Writing the song, Salah said, helped him explore and process his feelings about what “home” means.
“I remember in high school, I would always just be like, ‘I need to get out of the state. I need to leave. I want to go as far as possible,’” Salah said.
Yet, for his first two years at Elon, Salah said he had never felt more homesick.
“For better or for worse, I am my hometown. That is something I will always carry with me. I am how I was raised. I am my mother, I am my father, I am all of the friends that I kept,” Salah said. “And the loss of some of those things is something that I will forever grieve, but it's also something I will carry with me.”
After sharing clips of the song on TikTok, Salah began to see how people resonated with his lyrics.
“It's something that's meaningful in a way that I don't think anything has ever been meaningful, because it's such a part of my soul that I never thought I would share,” Salah said.
Then different producers began reaching out to Salah about the song.
In the end, Salah worked with Nashville-based producer Austin Moorhead and Ian Kimmel — whose credits include DJ Khalid, BTS and Lizzy McAlpine. Salah also worked with Elon senior Nicole Bazos on the song.
“One day, he just knocked on my door and came over and was like, ‘Hey, I want to write a song, and I need help,’” Bazos said.
Bazos, a music production major, met Salah because they have the same voice professor. Bazos releases her own original music and is a member of Thistle Ridge Band. For Salah’s music, Bazos said she worked with him to figure out what he wanted the song to sound like and to communicate with the producers.
Bazos said they went back and forth with the producers a few times, adjusting the drums and the guitar until it was the laid back — yet emotion-evoking — track they wanted.
“Nik also really wanted the song to be approachable and show that it was really him,” Bazos said. “That's how we came up with those ideas for adding a little laughter.”
Senior Nik Salah warms up his voice during a voice lesson on Nov. 20. Salah has been posting covers alongside his typical comedy videos on TikTok, but he began sharing his original songs over the summer.
After they had the track, Bazos said the two of them spent almost five hours in an Arts West studio to record the vocals.
“It's quite a sad song about feeling down about your hometown and like everything's kind of changing too fast,” Bazos said. “But Nik has a way of expressing it so beautifully that it doesn't make me sad when I hear the song, but I still feel so touched by his words.”
Bazos was not the only Elon student Salah worked with for “Midwest’s Best.” Senior Ella Huestis worked with Salah to create the cover art and promotional photos for the song. Huestis was not available for comment.
Throughout the whole process, Salah and Bazos shared different elements of the song with their voice professor Gretchen Bruesehoff. She has been their professor since freshman year and meets with them one-on-one each week.
“I feel super grateful to be a part of the artistic process with my students, and I think the Elon community and Elon experience enhances that,” Bruesehoff said. “We create a community that harbors acceptance, that harbors empathy, that harbors the creative process.”
When Salah first shared “Midwest’s Best” with Bruesehoff, she said he was asking for technical advice on vocal technique. But once she fully listened to the lyrics, Bruesehoff said she was moved by Salah’s work.
“He has a big heart, so for him to write music that is so deeply connected to the human experience is not surprising to me,” Bruesehoff said.
Senior Nik Salah sings during a lesson with voice professor Gretchen Bruesehoff on Nov. 20. Salah is holding a knitted chicken Bruesehoff keeps in her office for emotional support. Bruesehoff said she is grateful to be a part of her students' creative processes and to see her students collaborate on projects.
Bruesehoff, who has been encouraging Salah to post his singing online since she learned about his TikTok, said it’s been rewarding to see Salah grow as an artist.
“It's something that I don't take for granted, and I don't take lightly,” Bruesehoff said. “I recognize the importance of leaving every student that I teach in their greatness. My goal is that when they leave this room, they feel better than when they came in and are more willing to share what they have to say.”
On Nov. 15 and 16, Bruesehoff and her students traveled to Meredith College for the National Association of Teachers of Singing’s North Carolina Chapter fall conference. At the event, Bazos and Salah were among 14 Elon students to place in their respective categories. Bazos placed first for treble voices commercial music in her age group, and Salah placed first for music theatre in his voice type and age range.
Bruesehoff said she’s proud to see her students collaborating across different majors and disciplines to create and share their art with the world.
“Music is such a vulnerable thing, it's like one of those art forms that we love because it takes us away from our everyday life, even if it's three to five minutes in a song,” Bruesehoff said. “Music crosses boundaries that we cannot cross otherwise.”
As Salah has been promoting “Midwest’s Best” and teasing new songs, some commenters have speculated that Salah plans to transition away from his Judy Hopps loving persona as he pursues music. But Salah doesn’t see it that way. Inspired by the careers of Gracie Abrams, Bo Burnham and Conan Gray, Salah said he hopes to continue doing the things he enjoys without “pigeonholing” himself.
“Now that I am semi-successful in what I do in comedy, I'm kind of like, ‘OK, what other avenues can I explore?’” Salah said. “How can I utilize this to create more art that is interesting and meaningful for me, and to explore more avenues that I previously couldn't because of financial barriers? Because people weren't listening like they are now.”