Twenty-twenty three was arguably the year of Noah Kahan. With the release of his extended version of Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever) in June, Kahan has taken over ‘for you’ pages, sold out stadiums, toured the world, and collaborated with some of the biggest names in music. These include Hozier on his track Northern Attitude, which is a favourite rendition of mine, Post Malone on Dial Drunk, and Gracie Abrams on his track Everywhere, Everything. The vast majority of the songs on Stick Season have had the collaboration treatment leading fans to call out from the rooftops for a collaboration album, myself included, which would be reminiscent of Ed Sheeran’s Collaborations NO6.
His latest teased collaboration, of his heartbreaking song Homesick, caused an extreme media frenzy of speculation. Kahan teased a snippet of the song which included the collaborator’s voice but not their name. Videos were made and vocals isolated so that fans could guess who the artist was prior to the release of the song.
Fans went crazy trying to find out who the mystery man was. The main theories boiled down to two massive artists. Marcus Mumford of Mumford and Son’s fame versus northern star, Sam Fender. The hashtag ‘Geordietok’ was used under one of the TikTok which caused fans to speculate that the mystery collaborator was indeed Sam Fender. These TikTok sleuths were correct and Homesick (Ft. Sam Fender) was released on the 19th January 2024.
His latest teased collaboration, of his heartbreaking song Homesick, caused an extreme media frenzy of speculation.
TikTok has become the ‘it’ place for music marketing and the drama behind Kahan hiding whom the collaboration is with only aided in the song’s success. Having listened to the track an embarrassing number of times, I can say that the song is great. The combination of Kahan’s reminiscing about American culture combined with Fender’s deep lyrics about the struggles of the North of England makes Homesick even more heartbreaking.
Hopefully, 2024 will bring even more collaborations from Kahan and potentially a new album from Fender.
