Robbie Williams' 2012 hit "Candy" is topping TikTok feeds again, fourteen years after its original release, as a new dance challenge introduces the song to a generation of users who were not yet listening to music when it first came out.
"Candy" was released in 2012 as the lead single from Williams' album "Take the Crown." It reached number one in the United Kingdom and became one of the biggest chart-topping singles of the British singer's career.
A 2012 hit back in circulation
The original 2012 recording of "Candy" is by far the version driving the TikTok trend, with thousands of new videos using the song appearing in recent days alone. The pattern fits one of the platform's most familiar dynamics: older songs resurfacing years after release thanks to a specific clip that catches on.
For "Candy," the segment generating the most use sits at roughly the 35 to 40 second mark, showing how the song's life on the app now hinges on a short stretch of audio serving as a soundtrack for brief videos. This is not a new release, nor a song that suddenly appeared on the platform out of nowhere. What is happening now is a fresh wave of activity around a track that has endured and adapted to how social media works.
The surge is also not connected to "Candy (XXV)," the version Williams re-recorded for his 2022 greatest hits album. That recording shows far less activity on TikTok. The original 2012 version remains the one behind the trend.
Behind the renewed interest is a choreography built around coordinating with a dance partner so that the routine lands correctly rather than ending in mistimed collisions. The dance has become the entry point for users wanting to join the "Candy" trend on the platform.
2010s nostalgia finds a new soundtrack
The comeback of "Candy" fits into a much wider pattern on TikTok, where the platform regularly revives songs from earlier decades and puts them in front of audiences who did not experience them as hits the first time around. Users do not need to know Robbie Williams' career history to take a few seconds of the song and turn them into a video, meme, edit or piece of nostalgic content.
Several qualities of the song help that process along: an instantly recognisable melody, a chorus with a notably bright energy, and a sound closely tied to early 2010s pop. For listeners who remember its original release, the song triggers nostalgia. For those too young to recall it coming out, it simply works as a catchy pop song suited to summer.
Robbie Williams first rose to fame as a member of the boy band Take That before launching a solo career in the late 1990s that produced multiple UK number one singles and albums. "Candy" remains one of the defining hits of that solo run.
