While “Million Dollar Baby” is one of the biggest songs of 2025, the guy who sings it, Tommy Richman, is somewhat of a mystery to fans — which is why he says the song has become “bigger than me.”
Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Tommy says, “I appreciate ‘Million Dollar Baby.’ I think it’s a good song. We made it quick. When we made that song, we didn’t even think anything of it. We made it, we’re like, ‘Oh, it’s cool.'”
“It’s like the people just choose that one,” he adds. “And yeah, it took [on] a life of its own. And it’s really interesting, man, because this song blew up insane proportions, somehow statistically the biggest song of the year. It’s insane, bro … we were just [messing] around in the studio and that happened.”
“And I appreciate it, man. I really do. But … It doesn’t define me as an artist. Definitely not,” Tommy says. “I feel like right now the song is bigger than me. I feel like people don’t really know my face, people don’t really know me because I haven’t really talked at all.”
Here’s something we didn’t know about Tommy: He wanted to be a professional opera singer. He tells Zane, “I sang opera for a long time … and I was really passionate about it.”
Why did he give it up?
“I saw … some German opera … and it’s a great show and I’m looking around and I see people falling asleep,” he says. “And it’s like, ‘Do I want to be going crazy, singing the crazy s*** and people are literally falling asleep to it?'”
The following week, Tommy says, he saw Travis Scott live and realized he’d found his calling.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
