Lizzy McAlpine's performed her single "ceilings" on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" on Thursday night, two days after the hit debuted on the Billboard Hot 100.
The wistful, sometimes hallucinogenic ballad was released last April on her sophomore album "five seconds flat." McAlpine released a music video for the song for Valentine's Day and, two weeks later, it sits at No. 75 on the Billboard Hot 100. That marked the first time McAlpine appeared on the single chart.
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The Wynnewood native's performance on "The Tonight Show" was her second late night appearance. She previously appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" in November 2021.
McAlpine, whose music has been compared to that of Phoebe Bridgers, Olivia Rodrigo and Kasey Musgraves, has enjoyed some mainstream success since the release of "five seconds flat." This has been due in part to her social media presence and the sometimes angry, always-in-her-feeling sounds that she has become known for her since her debut album "Give Me A Minute" was released in 2020.
While "Give Me A Minute" mostly contains folksy, acoustic ballads and love songs like "Pancakes For Dinner," McAlpine's new album dives into the complexities of a past relationship, with a handful of heartbreak retrospectives filled with angsty riffs about love and growing up.
On "ceilings," McAlpine turns a heartfelt love song on its head with a series of plot twists, confronting a fleeting daydream filled with memories that feel like they're happening in real time.
The song has taken off on TikTok in recent weeks, where a sped-up version plays as women run through the rain or snow, typically away from the camera. The audio has been used more than 202,000 times on the social media app.
Though McAlpine, 23, has been recording and releasing music since 2018, when she was a student at Berklee College of Music in Boston, a number of covers and original songs posted to her TikTok account in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic helped propel her to national fame.
"I couldn't quite understand the full gravity of it (social media fame)," McAlpine told Billboard last month. "I was just in my room alone. All I could see was a screen with a bunch of people saying, 'Oh, this is so good.' It didn't really hit me until I toured for the first time, because I could actually see the people."
McAlpine joined indie pop singer Dodie on her early 2022 tour, where she primarily performed songs from her 2020 debut album in the lead-up to the release of "five seconds flat." After the album's release, she embarked on her first headlining tour, appearing for the second time at The Fillmore in September.
She's heading out on her second headlining tour, titled "The End of The Movie," this spring, and will make another stop at The Fillmore on April 29.
The singer wrote a screenplay of a short film to accompany the release of "five seconds flat," which can be streamed on YouTube. In the nearly 30-minute video, McAlpine stars as her younger self, reliving her first relationship in high school and the experience of her first heartbreak.
McAlpine told Billboard that she is already working on her third studio album. She didn't reveal much, though she mentioned that the album will not sound like her debut, and that it's some of the most "authentic" music she has written.
McAlpine also was tapped to perform the main title music for new AppleTV+ drama "Dear Edward." The song, which she wrote with composers Justin Paul and Philadelphia native Benj Pasek, was released to accompany the series premiere on Feb. 3.