Are Harry Daniels’ “Can I Sing For You” TikTok videos staged? What we know

If your FYP is anything like mine, then Harry Daniels' “Can I Sing For You” videos keep popping up on your feed. I'm obsessed with how he somehow captures each celebrity, spontaneously singing something to them and capturing their reactions at the same time. He has videos of himself singing to everyone from Charli XCX to Vice President Kamala Harris. Countless of his hilarious videos have gone viral. Comedian Bowen Yang even parodied Daniels, contributing SNL.

Daniels has truly become one of the fans' favorite TikTokers. But aren't his videos as random as they seem? Some might believe that Daniels plans his videos with celebrities in advance, which takes away the fun factor of finding them organically and surprising them. So the question remains: Are Daniels' “Can I Sing For You” videos staged? Here's what we know.

It all started when Daniels met pop star Sabrina Carpenter in 2022. He wanted her to remember him, so he asked to sing for her. The TikTok video was so well received that he continued to spontaneously sing to every celebrity he met. And based on the reactions he's received from celebs, some of his videos are certainly unplanned. “I think every reaction is a little strange. I think that’s part of the initial charm and appeal of some of the videos,” Daniels said People in an interview in October 2024. “I would say that 98% of the time they are very positive or at least neutral.” He spent years meeting artists at meet-and-greets and similar events, but now Daniels is becoming too red carpets and A-list shows.

Daniels recently appeared on The Zach Sang Show and discussed his viral video that he almost didn't post with Kamala Harris. The video is old, but since the election hype made the vice president a hot topic, he decided to finally release it. He also revealed that his videos with President Biden and former President Barack Obama were not planned in advance. Biden's team tried to create a video with him, but it didn't initially work given the president's busy schedule. They invited him to a fundraiser in New York, where Daniels discovered the president in person. He sang for him and amazed his team with how he could do it on his own. “It just worked better than anything they probably ever tried to set up,” Daniels said.

Daniels comes from New York, where many celebrities live and visit. Therefore, he was able to meet a lot of people and make videos. Now that they turn to her, the sky is the limit. So some of his videos are scheduled, some are not. For me, the pre-planned videos are still funny and don't detract from my experience as a viewer.

Daniels just released his debut single, “I'm Him,” so maybe now people will start singing for him. “I definitely want it to just be something fun that people can really have a good time with and that breaks the ice for future releases,” Daniels said People. As Daniels says at the end of his videos: “Period! Well!”