The Sabrina Bahsoon story: From Malaysia to the London Underground and TikTok fame
Sabrina, who has Lebanese and Sierra Leonean heritage, was born and brought up in Malaysia. At 16 years of age, she relocated to London.
By NATASHA JOIBI
If you're on TikTok, you'd have definitely come across a whole host of videos by young content creators dancing on public transportation like no one's watching.
But what you may not have known is that this trend of confident self-expression that's touched every corner of the globe, from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to Paris and New York, was kickstarted by a 22-year-old Malaysian law graduate — Sabrina Bahsoon a.k.a. "Tube Girl".
To cut a long story short, Sabrina filmed a video of her dancing on the London Underground back in August.
And to date, not only has she amassed over 750,000 followers because of it, she's also become the centre of the world's attention, with musicians like Troye Sivan, Omar Apollo and Leigh-Anne Pinnock and fellow TikTok influencers Bella Poarch and Chris Olsen lining up to collaborate with her.
But who was Sabrina Bahsoon before her meteoric rise to TikTok fame?
From Kuala Lumpur to Durham and the London Underground
Sabrina, who has Lebanese and Sierra Leonean heritage, was born and brought up in Malaysia. At 16 years of age, however, she relocated to London to do her A-levels.
Having been an athlete in Malaysia, Sabrina says she attended sports college initially. But the cold weather convinced her to hang up her running shoes.
She then took a gap year following her A-levels, waiting tables for a time to fund her studies, before eventually graduating from Durham University with a degree in law.
"After graduating, I didn't apply for law-related jobs. I knew they weren't for me. Instead, I applied to fashion marketing internships. I even applied for music marketing internships. But I was getting rejected right, left, centre.
"In some ways, I was trying to figure out my niche and just make progress for myself," she told Yahoo Southeast Asia.
Hence, when she recorded herself dancing and lip-synching to David Guetta and Nicki Minaj's Where Them Girls At in August this year, Sabrina says she just wanted to showcase her authentic personality.
Little did she know that that video would trigger a worldwide dance revolution and see her realise her fashion dreams, with runway stints at the London, Milan and Paris fashion weeks and collaborations with big brands like Boss and Valentino, among others.
Still, best of all, perhaps, is that Sabrina's impact is being felt everywhere, even back home in Malaysia.
Boosting Gen Z's confidence; here, there and everywhere
HITZ radio announcer Anne Jacyntha is one person who's definitely felt the Tube Girl effect and hopped aboard Sabrina's confidence-boosting train.
But Anne, 24, admits that it was nerve-wracking at first to dance alone on the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) train and that she was initially worried about backlash.
"Content creation is fun, and it entertains online audiences. But you have to remember you are also dealing with humans in real-time, in front of you. In Malaysia, the culture can be quite reserved, so you don't want to do anything ridiculous on the train.
"I tried my best to record the video in an angle that doesn't show other people's faces, to respect their privacy. Being considerate is important," she explained.
Thankfully, the public responded very well to Anne's video and even commended "MRT Girl" for being confident.
"People were staring in the beginning, but they soon went back to doing their own thing. It helps to know that people were unbothered (by the dancing), it made me feel unbothered. After all, it's just a TikTok trend… it's not that serious. But remember to be respectful," she adds.
Across the Causeway, meanwhile, 26-year-old TikTok content creator Edoardo "Edo" Liotta has creatively put his own spin on the Tube Girl phenomenon.
Jokingly calling his videos "exposure therapy", he says he'd been following Sabrina from before she hit it big on TikTok. And her content, Edo adds, has inspired him greatly.
That said, the TikToker, who is Italian by heritage, notes that it is comparatively more challenging to get with the trend in Singapore than in Europe.
This is because just like in Malaysia, the atmosphere can be quiet and composed, with most people keeping to themselves on public transportation.
"It gets easier with each try. And it's always worse in your head than in reality. (Still,) everyone knows the trend, and you see them encouraging you with their energy.
"Plus, it's a fun way to connect with other content creators," he says of dancing on the Singaporean MRT.
Positive is as positive does
For someone who describes herself as "shy", in any case, all of the attention has come as a pleasant surprise to Sabrina, the trend's originator.
Nevertheless, the young woman says that London was the perfect place for her to plunge into content creation, as it allowed her to confidently express herself without fear of judgment.
Even so, Sabrina notes that having been born and raised in Malaysia, her musical taste, style and energy are very much still "Malaysian-coded".
And while her world has blown up over the past couple of months, she's keeping her feet on the ground and focusing on just being a positive influence.
"Both of my grandmas have this ability to touch people's hearts. They are so great with people. Having that good energy, and sharing it with other people… I got that from them," Sabrina said.
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