Who Is Clinton Kane? The Youtube music star making a big first impression on the Official Charts

If you don't know who Clinton Kane is yet, then now seems like a pretty good time to catch up. 

But just who is he? You may already be familiar with him through his prolific YouTube output, where he has steadily uploaded cover videos for a number of years, gaining a sizeable following of over 400,000 subscribers. 

In the videos, Clinton - who has Norwegian and Filipino heritage, grew up in Australia and has lived in the UK too - covers everyone from The Weeknd to James Arthur. 

But now he's striking out a solo star in his own right with original music. 

Signed to Columbia Records, Clinton made a big impression on Dutch DJ Martin Garrix, who handpicked him to provide vocals for his 2020 single Drown. 

Clinton then followed Drown up with his own original single Chicken Tendies which is, actually, not about the food per se, but instead "[about] accepting things in a relationship I can't change."

Clinton told Billboard that he was originally inspired to start writing his own songs after his first-ever panic attack. 

"I started humming melodies out of nowhere and started mumbling words out and writing them down amidst having the panic attack," he said.

"As soon as I finished writing the song, which is now called 'this is what anxiety feels like,' my panic attack left, and in that moment I knew that making music was the only thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life."

This trend of painfully honest lyricism in his lyrics continues in Clinton's newest single I Guess I'm In Love, a tender piano-led power ballad about the indescribable feeling of realising you're properly in love for the first time. Already picking up 6 million global streams, its shaping up to be the biggest hit of the singer-songwriters career so far.

Article image credit: Thomas Falcone