Mae Stephens's 'If We Ever Broke Up'

Submission 2,799

Part of a series on TikTok. [View Related Entries]

About

'If We Ever Broke Up' or the If We Broke Up Song is a song by musical artist and TikToker Mae Stephens. Stephens posted a 15-second cut of the song to TikTok in late December 2022, which went viral over the course of January 2023 as an original sound in dance and lip dub videos, inspiring calls for Stephens to release the full version of the song on streaming services.

Origin

On December 29th, 2022, TikToker^[1] and musical artist Mae Stephens (@maestephens_) posted a 15-second long preview of her song "If We Ever Broke Up," dancing along to it as the lyrics appear on screen, garnering over 6.5 million views in a month (shown below, left). On January 4th she posted another teaser for another section of the song to TikTok,^[7] garnering over 2.2 million views in a month (shown below, right).

If we ever broke up, I'd never be sad
Thinking about everything that we had
If we ever broke up
If we ever broke up, I'd call your dad
And tell him all the shittiest things you've said
If we evеr broke up

Spread

The video's original sound went viral over the course of January 2023, inspiring over 22,700 uses in a month. The majority of videos under the sound are either lip dubbing or dancing to the song (popular examples shown below).^[2]^[3]

The popularity of the song inspired Stephens to announce the release of a full version. On January 7th, 2023, she posted a video to TikTok^[4] telling viewers to "hold on a little longer" for the release, garnering over 2 million views in three weeks. On January 11th, she posted a video to TikTok^[5] of herself at Warner Music Group, writing, "There will be a pre-save link soon!!" in the description, garnering over 100,000 views in three weeks (shown below). On January 18th, she posted another video to TikTok^[6] telling her fans the song was coming soon, garnering over 400,000 views in six days.