![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/82d5dcfb89a63d4d02dc33e1d5ebb703d9-alex-w-performing.rhorizontal.w700.jpg\")
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\n Photo: C Brandon\/Redferns\n <\/p>\n
On Alex Warren\u2019s breakout hit, \u201cOrdinary,\u201d the singer-songwriter is infatuated, telling a woman that, with just one look, she\u2019s taking him \u201cout of the ordinary.\u201d Yeah, it\u2019s a sweet thing to say, but it\u2019s also pretty on the nose for an artist like Warren \u2014 who, at first glance, does seem pretty ordinary. His deep voice is capable and free from sharp edges; on Instagram and in press photos, he presents as a typical 20-something boy next door, with an auburn beard, blue eyes, and a wardrobe full of comfortable-looking earth-toned pieces.<\/p>\n
No wonder he\u2019s everywhere right now \u2014 performing on Love Is Blind, soundtracking romantic TikToks, sitting at No. 12 on the Hot 100. Warren is just the latest iteration of one of the most consistently powerful forces on the pop charts: a seemingly boring white guy with a good voice. Sonically, he falls somewhere between Ed Sheeran<\/a>, Lewis Capaldi, and Noah Kahan<\/a>. But he\u2019s also building on the recent successes of Teddy Swims and Benson Boone<\/a>, two fellow singers with big emotions and bigger voices who have yet to loosen their grip on the top of the charts after taking hold last year.<\/p>\n Okay, maybe boring is a strong word. But placed next to the charismatic women running pop right now, it\u2019s clear that Warren and these other guys are lacking some pizazz. Chappell Roan just released a lesbian country stomp and sent the enthusiastically garish \u201cPink Pony Club\u201d to the top five. Doechii flipped Gotye\u2019s \u201cSomebody That I Used to Know\u201d into her next rap hit. Sabrina Carpenter\u2019s retro, sexy pop hits are still ruling radio. Blackpink members like Ros\u00e9 and Jennie<\/a> have proven they can be full-package stars away from their group. These women seem fresh and unique, while their male counterparts can blur together.<\/p>\n But Warren\u2019s image is just as considered as those women. Before he started making future wedding songs, he was a successful YouTube prankster in the mold of David Dobrik, and a co-founder of TikTok\u2019s infamous Hype House. Warren left the Hype House in late 2021, shortly before he signed with Atlantic Records. His pivot to music has involved a purposefully mature rebrand, aided by his marriage to fellow influencer and Hype House resident Kouvr Annon last year. Warren already had the voice, and he knew the best way to sell it: singing vaguely sentimental love songs that telegraph authenticity.<\/p>\n Warren\u2019s new air of seriousness widened his appeal from his YouTube days. Now, everyone from high-schoolers to grandmas can swoon at his wife-guy sweetness. His songwriting isn\u2019t especially profound or personal. \u201cOrdinary\u201d is a knot of religious and classical metaphors that wouldn\u2019t make it out of a high-school creative writing class. But it gets by on emotional signifiers like its film score percussion and choral backing vocals. It\u2019s an essential skill on the internet: seeming like you\u2019re saying something when you\u2019re really not saying much of anything.<\/p>\n Warren\u2019s songs themselves may not appear to be the work of an ex-YouTuber, but his marketing does, like featuring Annon in the \u201cOrdinary\u201d music video and releasing that orchestral \u201cWedding Version.\u201d He knows how important engagement is. It\u2019s no accident that all his songs have perfect Instagram-caption lyrics, like this one from his previous single \u201cCarry You Home\u201d: \u201cIn this and every life, I choose us every time.\u201d<\/p>\n The list of mundane, good-voiced guys to conquer the charts is full of one-hit wonders. Even more recent examples have struggled to maintain their early chart success, like Capaldi, who was touted as a male Adele after sending two songs to the top ten in 2019 and 2020, but has barely sniffed the Hot 100 since. The men who stick around tend to have more to show, like Sheeran, who became a stadium headliner with his solo-looped sets catchy pop hooks.<\/a> Warren seems to be making a different bet, that he can craft the perfect image to play this game better than everyone else. So far, with \u201cOrdinary,\u201d it\u2019s working. Now, he\u2019ll just have to outlast the next round of guys selling the same thing.<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: C Brandon\/Redferns On Alex Warren\u2019s breakout hit, \u201cOrdinary,\u201d the singer-songwriter is infatuated, telling a woman that, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[10353,10355,77,269,10354,3020,10352,16,15,10357,10356],"class_list":{"0":"post-15059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-alex-warren","9":"tag-billboard-charts","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-ordinary","13":"tag-pop","14":"tag-the-charts","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-vulture-homepage-lede","18":"tag-vulture-section-lede"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114327709746863097","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}