Aurora Starchild
Dolly Parton has officially joined TikTok, and her fans are ecstatic. In less than two days since her announcement, she’s amassed over 670,000 followers and 2.1 million likes.
Videos by Rare
Dolly Parton Made Her TikTok Announcement on Twitter
“Better late than never,” Parton wrote on Twitter, along with a smiley face emoji. Under the caption was a link to her new TikTok page. She quickly posted 10 videos. The first half were filled with captions like “I have arrived” and “Looks like I missed a lot! You all are so creative. Now that I’m here, tag me!”
Parton already has her chosen signature hashtags, #heyitsdolly and #dollytok.
Dolly Parton’s very first TikTok was met with thousands of comments including from TikTok, Amazon Music, Turner Classic Movies, iHeart Radio, MTV, and Academy of Country Music official accounts. Even Starbucks, Las Vegas, and Reddi-wip had something to say.
“Welcome, queen,” wrote TikTok.
“ALRIGHT EVERYONE GRAB YOUR DOLLY WIGS IT’S JUST LIKE WE PRACTICED,” wrote Amazon Music.
“The queen has arrived!” wrote ACM.
“Pour a cup of ambition – Dolly’s here!” wrote Starbucks.
The joyous greetings bestowed upon Dolly Parton aren’t a surprise, though. The country singer has a massive following on TikTok, even without using the platform until now. Videos using her songs and hashtags like #DollyParton and #DollyTok have garnered a total of 6.8 billion views, according to Variety.
Parton Shows Her Domestic Side and Features Her Own Songs
After Dolly Parton posted a series of montage videos, her next TikTok posts showed her domestic side. Three so far have shown the icon in a hot pink shirt and apron, baking a variety of goods. One of them features a cake made from Duncan Hines Dolly Parton signature coconut cake batter and frosting. She used her own music, of course, featuring a new ditty called “Berry Pie.”
Two of Parton’s posts were snippets from her October interview with Wired, “Dolly Parton Answers the Web’s Most Searched Questions.” She talks about her love of cooking.
“I’m a really, really good cook. I’m not a gourmet cook,” says Dolly in one TikTok post. “My food is not pretty but it’s good.”
In her next post, she talks about her love of potatoes.
“Every diet I’ve ever fell off of has been because of a potato,” says Parton. “Either French fries or mashed potatoes or baked potatoes. Potato, potato, potato. I’ve never met a spud I didn’t like.”
In one of her posts, Parton hilariously showed a montage of herself on her various social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. She also included a photo of her 1978 Playboy cover while mentioning Tinder.
Of course, she doesn’t really use Tinder. Dolly Parton loves her husband dearly.
Despite Her Social Media Usage, Dolly Parton Still Uses a Fax Machine
Ironically, despite Dolly Parton’s social media prowess, she doesn’t like to use her phone, according to Miley Cyrus. Miley opened up about Parton’s preference for using fax machines during an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers earlier this year. The conversation came up after the two singers had teamed up for a T-Mobile Super Bowl ad in which Dolly said, “Do it for the phones.”
“…I don’t know what she’s talking about,” said Miley about the T-Mobile slogan. “She’s rarely on the phone. Next time we have to ‘Do it for the fax machine.’”
Miley elaborated, “Well, we do use the phone. But she does a fax, and then someone scans the fax, and then they put it into a text message, and then that gets sent to me… And it’s always signed.” She added that the process is priceless in its own right. “There’s something so amazing just about a connection… that she took the time to get out, I guess, her typewriter?”
Miley endearingly referred to Dolly Parton as a courier pigeon, “the Dolly Pigeon.”
The Move to TikTok Is Yet Another Way to Spread Good Vibes and Cheer
It’s clear that Dolly Parton knows how to hold a crowd on social media, though. Everything she does, she does with a smile, and it tends to make a lot of people feel really good. Hence why she was recently awarded the $100 million Bezos Courage and Civility Award. Bezos announced that she was the recipient because of her ability to “lead with her heart” and to help others.
And help others, she does. Dolly Parton just put a ton of time into filming and promoting her new Christmas special, Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas. It premiered on December 1st on NBC and is available for streaming on Peacock. The special is a documentary-style musical event that includes behind-the-scenes footage of what it was like to make.
“I do believe that everybody’s interested in seeing what goes on behind-the-scenes in the making of, whether it be a TV special or a movie. There’s so much drama and so much craziness that goes on,” Parton told Stage Right Secrets. “But of course, what you see out there, you just see the best of it all. But I think people are interested in seeing all the chaos, the craziness, and the fun that goes along with it.”
She added that she hopes the Christmas special will be “uplifting, inspirational, and fun… We all need some of that, don’t you think?”
Indeed, Dolly Parton spreads the good holiday cheer. And now you can watch her on TikTok @DollyParton, accompanied by her own songs, like “9-5,” “Jolene,” and now, “Berry Pie.”
