Skip to main content
What’s rarer than having an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony? An iconic morning show pop concert. Portland singer Rachel Wong’s Nov. 25 performance on KOIN’s morning show AM Extra of her new song “Lit 4 the Holidays” has, as of press time, racked more than 250,000 views on Instagram—not a mega-viral hit by global standards, but easily AM Extra’s most popular video post this year.
Hilary Duff and Fergie’s morning show performances are among the most-discussed in their careers—for both possessing a strange je ne sais quoi and serving pop supremacy at an ungodly hour when most people’s coffee is still kicking in—and now Wong joins their esteemed company.
Wong is getting a lot of feedback from viewers of the fairly viral Xmas video.
“If I were earlier in my career, I would be upset—there are about 50-50 on people who love or hate me right now,” Wong says. “Someone said ‘This is singlehandedly ruining Christmas,’ and I was like, ‘Wow, the power that I wield!’”
Wong, who was featured in WW’s Best New Bands Issue earlier this year, also writes music to be licensed for commercials and TV shows—and “Lit 4 the Holidays” was part of that side hustle. She wrote and recorded it over three days in July, which Wong tells WW comes late in the music industry’s planning cycle. The song was written for a Netflix holiday movie and is inspired by “Christmas in Hollis” by Run-D.M.C. “Lit 4 the Holidays” hasn’t been picked up yet, but Wong says this is typical for the music industry’s developmental flow.
“The scene is you drive up in a climactic moment where you pull up to the house that’s crazy decorated,” Wong explains. “And of course the crazy TV performance that has terrible audio is what goes viral….This is not Jimmy Kimmel, this is not SNL, they’re not optimized to feature audio performances, but they’re so supportive.”
As a trap drum beat builds over the dramatic introduction for “Carol of the Bells,” Wong’s simple earworm chorus bores into readers’ heads, where getting it unstuck by Christmas seems unlikely. Blex Blalock, Wong’s backup dancer, steals the show during the performance as they dance to illustrate the song’s lyrics and vibe, even as Blalock and Wong struggle not to get engulfed by the TV studio’s cavernous size. Wong says she met Blalock at an LGBTQ+ Pride event after her set, where Wong saw Blalock dancing to her songs.
“The queer community here is so supportive,” she says.
Wong is no stranger to viral moments. In 2015, she accidentally caused a cable news frenzy when she left a piano on a Malibu cliffside after recording a music video, which spawned whodunit mystery that entranced TV anchors.
This time around, Wong is already seeming a boost to her streams and social media engagement across platforms. Her favorite interactions online have been with local drag artist Jay Colby, who half-jokingly, half-seriously identified with Blalock’s obviously supportive spirit; and Jaymes Vaughan, a musician best known for his appearances on reality shows like The Amazing Race and Real Friends of WeHo (his husband is Mean Girls actor Jonathan Bennett).
“[Vaughan] posted—and he has a Christmas album—and was like ‘This is amazing, I’ve been singing ‘Lit, lit, lit 4 the holidays’ all day,’” Wong says. “It’s crazy!”
“Lit 4 the Holidays” is Wong’s eleventh of 12 singles planned for the year, excluding songs written for commercial licensing. She doesn’t plan on releasing a full-length due to the nature of the music industry and streaming platforms, but an official “Lit 4 the Holidays” music video featuring Blalock will release in December. Wong teased that a couple of her songs will be on the next season of Love Island.
“I’m not trying to move to L.A. and tour, so I’m not taking it that seriously,” she says. “I’m seeing the posts come in, but I’m not reading every comment. If Jonathan Bennett’s husband wants to love me, and if Jay Colby comments, I will take it. I will take whatever shine I can get.”
