Who is Bazzi? Five facts about the rising star behind emerging hit Mine

This year has already seen a string of new acts, including Ramz, Keala Settle, Dan Caplen and Sigrid establish themselves with their very first UK Top 40 singles. 

Another act to keep a close eye on is Andrew Bazzi - or just Bazzi to you and us - a 20-year-old American singer-songwriter who already has some very famous fans and loyal legion of followers. His latest track Mine made its UK Top 40 debut last week, and looks set to continue growing.

Here are five key facts about Bazzi and his breakthrough hit to get you up to speed.

Bazzi first gained a following posting covers online

Bazzi first gained a following by performing covers of songs by his favourite artists online. “I just wanted to find a different way to share myself with the world via social media,” he explained to The Samohi in 2015. The videos may have only been a few seconds long, but for Bazzi, it was enough to catch the ears of the public.

Talking about his first ever online post, recorded with a friend in their back garden, he said: "It was just some dumb rap video we did as a joke. I remember going to bed on that video and waking up and seeing 200 likes or something and I was like ‘Ah that’s so cool, 200 likes! I’m gonna keep going!’"

A meme trend has skyrocketed Mine's popularity

From one social media platform to another, Bazzi's trajectory continued with the 'you so precious when you smile' meme, which features the audio from the first line of Mine, and has spread like wildfire on Snapchat.

Mine has been streamed a LOT of times

Looking at the numbers, Mine has connected with the public on a global scale. At the time of writing, Mine has been streamed more than 72 million times globally on Spotify alone, and its trippy music video has garnered a cool 13 million hits on YouTube.

Taylor Swift and Camila Cabello are big fans

Bazzi has a lot of famous fans, most notably Taylor Swift, who selected Mine as one of her favourite tracks of the moment on a special Spotify playlist she curated. And it was top of her list! Another big endorsement came from Camila Cabello, who said on social media: "A male artist I would like to collaborate with is Bazzi. I just started listening to his new music and I'm a fan."

K-pop boyband BTS also given the thumbs up to Mine, sharing the artwork to the track on their Twitter account to their 12.7 million followers.

Bazzi thinks Mine's length is one of its strengths

At only 2 minutes and 14 seconds long, Mine is one of the shortest songs you will hear on the Official Chart at the moment, but Bazzi thinks that's one of the track's selling points. "I think it almost forces the listener to hear the whole thing,” he explained to Billboard.

“I wanted people to really dissect what I was saying in those two minutes rather than giving them a little too much. I definitely think there’s something special and revolutionary about that.”