Yahoo Finance Australian Father-Daughter TikTok Duo Go Viral for Impressive Lip-Syncing Videos: 'A Real Joy'
BenandZara/TikTok
An Australian father and daughter discovered TikTok during the pandemic and quickly became viral stars for their sweet lip-syncing videos.
Ben Tate and daughter Zara, 8, first discovered the social media platform during stay-at-home orders and started a private account shared with just family and friends. Then one day, the two decided to push one of their videos public at the encouragement of their loved ones and were amazed by the response.
"It was a lot of what Zara and I would do a lot of anyway, since she was really 2, coming on to 3, she's always done performances for us at home," Ben tells PEOPLE. "We decided as long as it remains enjoyable for everyone. Let's just keep going and see what happens."
Ben's wife, Zara's mom Lisa, also works on the videos with them behind the scenes and is equally as amazed at the success the two have amassed.
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"We did not foresee that it would reach as far as it has," the father of two explains. "I've always thought that Zara is amazing because she's my daughter, of course, but to see her performances received so positively globally has been, it's been a real joy and a proud parenting moment for both of us."
The content the two make for their accounts usually starts with an idea from Zara, who likes to share songs and dances she wants to work with. They've streamlined their process, making things "a lot quicker."
"Zara learns lyrics to songs and dancers and all of our performance stuff really quickly, so we've got it down to a quite short process in comparison to how we used to it. We used to play around with it a lot, but now we know what we like and what sticks, and then it's done and dusted pretty quickly."
Ben, who grew up a performer since he was 9 years old and was once on an Australian soap opera, explains that while it's a "natural evolution that one of my kids might want to get into this space," he and Lisa have set boundaries to protect Zara online.
"We've drawn a line in the sand that we don't want to personalize our content. To each their own, but for us, we like to keep it just a performance thing because we are pretty private people. Also, as a parent, I believe that I'd like to keep everything for Zara as private as possible."
When it comes to using the app, "Zara doesn't have any access to our TikTok account or our Instagram account because she's only 8 years old. So, she doesn't see comments or anything like that. We look after it as any sensible parent would. We don't allow her access to it in her own private time, and whenever she is on there watching stuff, it's it's under my supervision."
That said, the two have been spotted out and about by fans in recent months.
"For Zara, she really likes it. She thinks it's a little bit strange, but she's not in a negative way. It's just that people are recognizing her, and she hasn't met these people before. She thinks it's quite funny," he tells PEOPLE. "She always laughs when they come and say hello."
As the two make plans for their channel, Zara's younger brother Jordan is also interested in making content with them.
"My son enjoys it. He's starting to get involved a little bit more, but he's interested once in a while, where Zara loves to — not only did she love to perform, she wants to practice. She wants to get it. She's quite a perfectionist," he explains. "Whereas I don't think Jordan's game for that just now, but he's a great little performer. I'd love to get him involved."
They've also made some exciting fans online, with Elton John and Bon Jovi having reposted their videos. It's the family's dream to get to collaborate with some of those bigger names in the future.
"Zara would probably love Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, anyone that really wants to jump in, if you're reading this," Ben says with a laugh.
Their future videos will also feature some more original content from the father-daughter duo.
"We're starting to really evolve the channel and do more content with our own voices and original comedy sketches. And we've got some exciting things coming up in Australia that we can't really talk about just yet. I'm excited to see the response to those," he shares.
For Ben and Lisa, who have both been able to commit to this full-time, it's a "really enjoyable" experience.
"It's really lovely to be able to do this with my family. To be able to spend so much time with my kids and work at the same time is a real gift. It's a real blessing, so just continuing it and evolving it and seeing where it grows is what I'm most excited about I guess."
