This feature details how the Belfast artist captured the United Kingdom crown for a second time and ended up fifth worldwide in the September 18 global championship.
I'd stood on every stage that has a red buzzer attached to it. Then I put a phone on a stand in my living room and sang to 40 people.”— Jolene Burns, Singer-Songwriter
In a piece titled "Back-to-Back: Jolene Burns Wins the UK at TikTok's Music on Stage for the Second Year Running," Tinsel Magazine reports that the Belfast singer-songwriter secured the United Kingdom in TikTok LIVE's Music on Stage for a second straight year and placed fifth globally in the September 18 final.
Per Tinsel, TikTok introduced the 2026 edition of Music on Stage on August 13. The contest attracted music creators from over 20 regions, and British singer-songwriter Cat Burns hosted the EMEA and Americas Global Final on September 18. Tinsel notes that winners obtain recording, distribution and promotional backing via SoundOn, TikTok's music distribution and artist-services platform, plus performance opportunities at TikTok LIVE Fest, the All Things Go festival in New York and the Breakaway Carolina festival.
Also worth a look: Track Review: Doechii “Denial Is a River” Is a Lyrical Tour de Force and Track Review: Rosalia “Abismo” Merges Flamenco and Industrial Electronics.
The feature cites TikTok's released numbers for the competition's debut year in 2025: over 8.2 billion impressions, more than 230,000 posts using the #MusicOnStage hashtag, and over 1.4 million viewers for the Global Finals, as counted by the company.
According to the article, Burns claimed the United Kingdom in the competition's first year and finished third worldwide. This year she again won the United Kingdom and ended up fifth globally in the September 18 Global Final, based on final rankings shared by Burns and by Moxie Media Marketing, the Texas firm that represents her.
Tinsel reports that Burns was raised in the New Lodge area of north Belfast, which is the focus of The Flats, a documentary by Italian filmmaker Alessandra Celesia. According to the piece, Burns appears in the film and composed original songs for it. The publication states the documentary premiered at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen in 2024, where it earned the festival's top prize, and later received the George Morrison Feature Documentary Award from the Irish Film and Television Academy in 2025, as noted by its distributor, Icarus Films. The article mentions that the Sunday World profiled Burns in June 2025 as a Belfast songwriter who had written for the documentary and was pursuing a singer-songwriter career.
The article describes a lengthy prior run on televised singing competitions. According to Tinsel, Burns reached the bootcamp stage of The X Factor in 2011, and in 2015 sang during the blind auditions of The Voice of Ireland, turning coach Niall Breslin's chair and joining his team. The Belfast press also lists Britain's Got Talent among her appearances, the publication reports.
Burns described the shift when she started broadcasting from home. "I'd stood on every stage that has a red buzzer attached to it," she said. "Then I put a phone on a stand in my living room and sang to 40 people, and it was the first gig that ever felt like mine. Nobody was deciding whether I got through. People were just staying, and then they came back the next night and brought somebody with them. You can hear a room breathing on a live, even when the room is spread right across half the world and it's two in the morning somewhere."
According to the feature, those broadcasts led to competitive success. Tinsel cites Star magazine's March 2026 report that Burns finished first in her region and 12th globally at TikTok LIVE Fest in 2025, in a field Star estimated at roughly six million creators from more than 45 countries. Star described the broadcasts as nightly digital concerts performed from locations ranging from the Caribbean to the United States.
Burns described her audience in geographic terms. "You're not just performing for views. You're building real relationships with people in Brazil, Germany, Japan, South Africa, places I've never even been yet. And they're showing up every night for you," she told the magazine. Of the run itself: "It felt like a world tour happening inside my phone. Every night was a different country. A different crowd. A different energy."
The article reports that during the first Music on Stage in autumn 2025, Burns took the United Kingdom and finished third in the world at a Global Final held in London on September 27 with Sam Ryder as host.
Per the publication, Moxie Media Marketing entered the picture around the same period. The company, run by Kenneth W. Welch Jr. from a base north of Houston, describes itself as a platform offering independent artists production, distribution and promotion, and runs the Global Talent Billboard Directory, an artist platform it launched in October 2025. Tinsel reports that, by the company's own account, Moxie brought Burns to Aruba to record three songs and shoot three videos with island producers, and that the Belfast Telegraph has reported subsequent shoots in Antigua and Jamaica. Welch, who is engaged to Burns, told that paper: "Her magical voice is so unique. She is a true prodigy. She is self-taught and self-created."
The article notes that the Belfast Telegraph covered Burns signing a United States record deal with Moxie in August. Burns told the paper: "I've taken the record deal with Moxie Media Marketing and I'm going to stay with them."
The publication reports a reach figure of over 270 million views for her videos across Moxie's platforms, attributing that count to the company. Tinsel observes that the competition standings are TikTok's: first in the United Kingdom twice, and a top-five world finish in each of the two years the contest has run.
According to the article, recording on the first of two albums begins within weeks, with soulful songs written for the first record and upbeat material for the second. The publication states the albums will be recorded in a studio Moxie built in Texas, which the company says is now complete, and that a tour is planned for next year, following a Las Vegas show in February at The Space that Moxie says was full.
Burns described the second title as the more difficult of the two. "People keep asking me if the second one was easier," she said. "It was harder. The first year nobody knew who I was and I had nothing to lose. This year I had a title to hold onto and half of Belfast watching, and I wanted it more. I went back to the same stage a year later and did it again, and nobody can take that off me. Where I'm from you don't get handed a second go at anything, so I wasn't going to waste mine."
The full article is available now at https://tinselmag.com/jolene-burns-second-verse-same-crown/. A companion profile of Moxie Media Marketing and its chief executive is available at https://tinselmag.com/kenneth-welch-moxie-builder-behind-the-back-to-back/.
— Sources Referenced in the Tinsel Magazine Feature —
TikTok Newsroom, TikTok LIVE's Music on Stage returns for 2026, August 13, 2026 – https://newsroom.tiktok.com/tiktok-lives-music-on-stage-returns-for-2026-to-discover-the-next-generation-of-global-music-stars?lang=en-GB&ref=tinselmag.com
TikTok Newsroom, TikTok LIVE launches Music On Stage '25, August 19, 2025 – https://newsroom.tiktok.com/tiktok-live-music-on-stage?lang=en-GB&ref=tinselmag.com
TikTok Newsroom, TikTok crowns global champions of TikTok LIVE: Music On Stage, October 15, 2025 – https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-gb/tiktok-live-music-on-stage-winners-announced?ref=tinselmag.com
