Tones and I lands a fourth week at No.1 and preps youth activism anthem The Kids Are Coming

Her hit song Dance Monkey turned her from being a Melbourne musician into a global pop star. Now after years of busking, Tones and I is using her next single to help others.

Australian pop chartslayer Tones and I plans to leverage the phenomenal global success of her Dance Monkey “bop” to galvanise youth activism with her new single The Kids Are Coming.

Dance Monkey has made a historic run on the ARIA charts, the first homegrown No. 1 hit in 2019 and only female artist track to spend three or more weeks at the top spot since Gabriella Cilmi with Sweet About Me in 2008.

As the song claimed a fourth week at No.1 in Australia and continues its rise in the UK and throughout Europe, the keyboard-wielding busker headed to Los Angeles to shoot the video for The Kids Are Coming with some globally recognised co-stars.

Australian musician Tones and I is NO.1 for a fourth week with Dance Monkey. Picture: Supplied

Tones and I is keeping their identities a secret beyond the clue they are “inspiring young activists”. But she didn’t rule out her co-stars may include the students who have led the gun control movement in the wake of the Parkland high school shooting last year.

“We reached out to a lot of young activists; some of them live in Germany so we had to find a central point for everyone,” she said.

“We want to make this song an anthem for a movement, the start of something.”

Ahead of the release of her debut EP, also titled The Kids Are Coming, on Friday, the socially conscious artist said as Dance Monkey began its astonishing rise she plotted her next move.

Her “biggest fear” was to be pigeonholed as a pop star chasing radio hits instead of using the platform afforded by millions of listeners “to do something important”.

The Kids Are Coming is also the first song she has wholly produced and she is rather proud of herself for that achievement considering her career started on the streets playing live music and not in a studio.

The colourful artist wants to empower youth activism with her new single. Picture: Supplied

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“Now I am at the point people are believing in my music, I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t talk about what I believe in and genuinely try to empower myself and my audience to do something good,” she says.

The song doesn’t attack older generations as much as it calls out “old-minded thinking”.

“We don’t just protest for the fun, we’re here to get it done,” she sings on the track.

Watson said The Kids Are Coming was inspired by the frustration of young people coming up against “older” opposition to change, whether it be gun control or climate action or human rights.

The music video would celebrate the “positive messages” about how the “world is changing for the good”.

“Everything I want to do as an artist, I knew I needed to get to a point where I could release this song and have traction. I never thought it would go this big but for me to do something good, the right time is now,” she said.

Watson is part of a new generation of artists with a fan-first, rather than fame-at-all-costs, career strategy.

She plans to keep busking regularly and stage free impromptu listening parties and gatherings for her followers. She even shouts them dinner.

Her first headlining shows in May off the back of the success of her debut single Johnny Run Away sold out quickly, with tickets capped at $14.

The Dance Monkey national tour has sold out all 15 shows ahead of her first European shows.

“I think the tickets for this one were $29; it’s very important to me to never be out of reach,” she said.

“There is no necessity in this world that requires you to have an absurd amount of money. I would rather have everyone be able to come to the show.”

The Kids Are Coming EP is released on Friday.