He slept in cars, found notoriety on social media and could be pop's next superstar. The singer of Ordinary, the longest-running No 1 of the year, talks about his journey to breakout success
At 18, Alex Warren was homeless, sneaking into the gym of a gated community in his home town of Carlsbad, California, to shower for job interviews and film TikTok videos of himself singing in the bathroom. Six years later he is one of pop's next potential superstars. His bombastic ballad Ordinary has been No 1 in the UK charts for five weeks, the longest-running chart leader this year, and entered the US Top 10 last week. As soon as he heard the finished version, he was "freaking out – my wife and I listened to it on repeat for our entire drive home, for 45 minutes." Ordinary may be Warren's breakout hit but he's been famous for a long time. He gained notoriety on social media in his teens by making hugely popular videos with titles such as "BROTHER WAKES UP IN MIDDLE OF LAKE PRANK!" In 2019 he co-founded the Hype House, a shared house of content creators (including the D'Amelio sisters and Addison Rae) known for Covid-era internet videos, as well as at least one controversial facemask-free influencer party and, eventually, a $300,000 (£226,000) lawsuit – which Warren wasn't named in – which alleged property damage and unpaid rent. I hated who I was becoming He was also one of the stars of Netflix's subsequent Hype House show, in which Warren goes to increasingly deranged lengths to film his prank videos, eventually staging a fake wedding with his now real wife, influencer, Kouvr Annon. He calls Hype House his "college experience: that's what I did when I was 19. I wouldn't be here without that time in my life." Warren is speaking by video from Tennessee – an income-tax-free state, and therefore an increasingly popular influencer haven. One of Warren's sisters lives nearby, and it felt like a spot where Annon could "feel safe" while he's on tour. The chic new home he moved into last week – I spy vaulted ceilings and a large yard as he paces back and forth – matches his nice new life, miles removed literally and spiritually from the Hype House, and from his…