Gen Z was green with envy as Paige took to the Jonas Brothers stage. Now, she shares all.
Gen Z was green with envy as Paige took to the Jonas Brothers stage. Now, she shares all.
In a world where social media is the site of much negative debate, Paige brings a modern success story to light, championing platforms like TikTok and Instagram to get on stage with the Jonas Brothers. However, as she shines a spotlight on the dark underbelly of social media, she highlights the opportunities and challenges it poses to young artists.
Kiwi popstar Paige wouldn’t be the first 20-something to admit a slightly obsessive liking of the Jonas Brothers.
However, not many can say they managed to sing This Is Me onstage with the famed boy band.
So how did the pop star’s dreams come to life?
“I started a campaign on TikTok and Instagram for like a few months where I asked the Jonas Brothers if I could sing this song with them,” she shares.
“Because it was the first song that I learned how to play on guitar.”
She confessed: “I was like, ‘maybe it’ll happen. It probably won’t but if it did it’d be cool’.”
Paige posted several videos to get the band’s attention, performing Camp Rock’s iconic anthem Gotta Find You on guitar and begging Live Nation to get her in contact with the Jonas Brothers.
However, a moment of self-doubt nearly saw the pop star throw it all away.
“Before I had a chance to delete the first video that I made out of being embarrassed, they’d already seen it. So I was like, ‘I have to keep it going’.”
After weeks of posts, back-and-forth comments and a huge public push from New Zealand, Paige was invited to sing with Nick, Joe and Kevin at Auckland’s Spark Arena.
Reflecting on the moment, the singer was speechless.
“I still don’t really know how to explain how it was,” she shared.
“They were really beautiful and really nice. It was such a dream.
“And now I’m kind of like, ‘what am I going to do now?’.”
Don’t let the pop star fool you, she has heaps on the horizon and a catalogue of music that is going down a treat.
Paige's TikTok campaign saw her grace the stage with the Jonas Brothers. Now she's up for 2 AMAs and has a lot to say through her music.
Paige’s debut album, King Clown, nabbed the 16th spot on the Top 40 Albums list in New Zealand and has racked up over 10 million streams worldwide since its 2023 release.
Its wide-stretching international success - the album has developed quite the fan base in Korea and Australia - is down to two factors: Paige’s distinctive voice and her ability to think outside the box.
“I wrote the album about kind of being a good person and a bad person,” she said.
“I think in music, a lot of people like to write about playing the victim and playing like the person that got heartbroken.
“Whereas I wanted to write in a position of being the heartbreaker, just because I thought that would be quite fun,” she admitted.
Now, King Clown has been nominated for Album of the Year at the Aotearoa Music Awards and has seen Paige up for the Best Pop Artist prize.
“When I saw the categories come out and who was nominated, I kind of just laughed”, she smiled before saying: “It’s an honour”.
"I just want to let people know that it’s cool to care and it’s cool to try and it’s cool to have goals."
However, the artist is not naive about the audience that she holds. Boasting a Gen Z fan base hanging on her every word, Paige hopes to do a little bit more than make music, she hopes to influence a generation of Kiwis into breaking the mould.
“I think there’s a stigma in New Zealand where you’re not allowed to speak about trying. We don’t want to admit that it’s cool to try hard for what you want to do”, she says, referencing the ‘tall poppy syndrome’ that young Kiwis often face.
Through music, the artist talks about making it in the States and making her dreams come true, inspiring others to aim high without the shame that often follows in Aotearoa.
“I’m trying to go for the bigger picture”, she says. “I just want to let people know that it’s cool to care and it’s cool to try and it’s cool to have goals.
“Kiwis really like to blend in and not take up space, but while I’m trying to set an example for other people to do so, I’m also trying to learn to do it.”
This is where she says social media becomes a double-edged sword.
Even Paige - whose Jonas Brothers singalong and international fame is partly owed to her online popularity - can also struggle with social media’s big role in music.
“I’ve always been the type of person who just likes making music,” admits Paige.
“I don’t really care about how I dress or what I look like in photos or music videos.
“If I could just have songs and not show my face, I’d be so stoked,” she says.
However, as social platforms have become more popular as a marketing tool for artists, so have the accompanying pressures to maintain a social media presence with the masses.
“I love TikTok,”says Paige. “I’ve found so many cool artists on TikTok and I’ve also gained a lot of followers as an artist.”
“But to set up a camera and, you know, talk to a camera is not a natural thing for me,” she admits. “It’s something that I’m still trying to navigate.”
"I think that there's a stigma in New Zealand where you're not allowed to speak about trying."
As for Kiwis hoping to make it in the music game, Paige’s advice is to work hard and “put yourself in every single corner”.
“I’ve spent so much time busking, playing at restaurants, playing at bars, playing at weddings, emailing labels, meeting other musicians and learning how to produce.
“I think that doing all those things has kind of really helped me do it,”she says.
So, with social media at your fingertips and a “work hard, sing harder” mentality that Paige makes look seamless, who is to say you can’t sing with the Jonas Brothers, nab an AMA and become the voice of a generation?
Watch the Aotearoa Music Awards on May 30 and head to The Herald for all your red carpet updates and winner announcements.
Megan Watts is a lifestyle multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald whose passions include honest journalism, backstage band chats and doing things for the plot.
