{"id":15156,"date":"2020-10-05T16:10:53","date_gmt":"2020-10-05T21:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/?p=15156"},"modified":"2026-01-19T16:57:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:57:38","slug":"salem-ilese-and-berklees-bonnie-hayes-on-viral-tiktok-hit-mad-at-disney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/salem-ilese-and-berklees-bonnie-hayes-on-viral-tiktok-hit-mad-at-disney\/","title":{"rendered":"Salem Ilese and Berklee\u2019s Bonnie Hayes on Viral TikTok Hit \u2018Mad at Disney\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-songwriting-technique-and-tiktok-culture-combined-to-launch-salem-ilese-s-viral-success\">How Songwriting Technique and TikTok Culture Combined to Launch Salem Ilese\u2019s Viral Success<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Salem Ilese shares many characteristics of a Disney princess: a beautiful singing voice, bright eyes and a big smile, not to mention the fact that she has two charismatic sidekicks: a bearded dragon and a white fluffy dog. What the 21-year-old songwriter doesn\u2019t have in common with Cinderella, Snow White, or Sleeping Beauty, however, is her thoughts on fairytale romance. Salem\u2019s viral song, \u201cMad at Disney,\u201d which she co-wrote with boyfriend Bendik M\u00f8ller and Jason Hahs, takes a playful jab at the company for \u201ctricking\u201d them into thinking that the love stories in Disney movies are attainable. The song, which took off on TikTok, is now one of the top 50 most-streamed songs globally on Spotify. Although she might not believe in romantic fairytales, she says she is starting to believe in career fairytales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"salem ilese - mad at disney (official lyric video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0VBEgFQZH-w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Salem Ilese\u2019s song \u201cMad at Disney\u201d went viral on TikTok and now has millions of streams. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s been super surreal,\u201d says Salem, who recently signed to the Homemade Projects label. \u201cI feel like it happened within the span of two weeks. Everything kind of exploded almost overnight on TikTok. We went from having 1,800 people use our video to I think over a million now, which is absolutely insane. \u2026 I\u2019m so grateful, and I never in a million years thought that this would happen.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before Salem\u2019s song captured cynical romantics around the world, she was a student at Berklee College of Music. Before that, she was a student of Bonnie Hayes, who leads the songwriting programs at Berklee and will be the chair of Berklee Online\u2019s upcoming Master of Arts in Songwriting program. She has also written hit songs for Bonnie Raitt, Cher, Bette Midler, David Crosby, and more. Hayes first met Salem at Blue Bear School of Music in San Francisco. Even though Salem was only nine years old at the time, Hayes says she knew that she was a talented songwriter. She was concerned, however, that she\u2019d be left out for being significantly younger than the other students.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThat girl came into my program, it was a middle school program, and I was really worried,\u201d says Hayes. \u201cI said to her mom, \u2018She\u2019s so dinky. I\u2019m afraid that girls are going to be mean to her and exclude her.\u2019 And what happened is, she clearly listened to a lot of country and was just writing these incredible choruses. Really, I didn\u2019t have to tell her anything. All I did was get out of her way.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Bonnie started at Berklee as the chair of the Songwriting Department, Salem knew that she wanted to study with her in Boston.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s arguably the best songwriting teacher in existence,\u201d says Salem. \u201cAbsolutely incredible. I\u2019m so thankful for Bonnie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/faculty\/bonnie-hayes?pid=8023&amp;utm_source=takenote&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=bol-gen-takenote-article-promotion\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>TAKE A SONGWRITING COURSE WITH BONNIE HAYES<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Salem attended Berklee for two years before she left for LA to pursue the songwriting opportunities that were already knocking. In an interview with <em>Rolling Stone<\/em>, Salem recalls Hahs walking into a songwriting session expressing that he was \u201cmad at Disney\u201d after seeing the remake of the <em>Lion King<\/em>. This got Salem thinking about her interest in Disney as a kid and how love never looks like how it does in the movies.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"salem ilese - mad at disney (live from home)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JKsmIrmC2Ms?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Meet Salem&#8217;s bearded dragon Lil Cow in her performance of &#8220;Mad at Disney&#8221; live with her band. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI mean, first of all, it\u2019s not mad,\u201d says Hayes about her student\u2019s hit. \u201cWhat\u2019s great about it is she\u2019s saying she\u2019s mad at Disney and it\u2019s immediately apparent what she\u2019s talking about. That they made her expect something that she didn\u2019t get, and can\u2019t get. But she doesn\u2019t sound mad, she sounds adorable. And so there\u2019s this combination of this pretty astute observation about Disney with this very acceptable female, vocal style, and really catchy melody.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though on the surface, \u201cMad a Disney\u201d can be interpreted as a take on modern dating, TikTok users are digging deeper into the song\u2019s layers to criticize Disney for its lack of diversity, heteronormativity, and corporate greed. To date, the song has been featured in 1.7 million TikTok videos which also include more frivolous content like makeup tutorials, dance routines, and more. Salem says that she, Hahs, and M\u00f8ller were also thinking about Disney\u2019s shortcomings when they were writing the song.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mad at Disney - TIKTOK COMPILATION\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/47dQp9v27jk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A compilation of videos from TikTok that feature &#8220;Mad at Disney.&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI am so happy to watch everyone take different messages from \u2018Mad at Disney\u2019 and kind of make it their own,\u201d says Salem. \u201cIt honestly warms my heart so much because everything that people are saying is totally true. The song really stemmed from just a somewhat intellectual conversation about how Disney scarred us, and how it lacks in so many areas. I feel bad that I\u2019m starting a revolution against Disney but it\u2019s also really great to see people speaking out for what they believe in.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>As a songwriting tool, Hayes says that writing a brand into your song can help it gain traction. Salem did this again in her upcoming song \u201cCoke and Mentos.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/using-brand-names-songwriting-creative-perspective-business-prospective\/?campaign_id=7010Z000001ZkQgQAK&amp;pid=&amp;utm_source=takenote&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=bol-gen-takenote-link-from-article\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Read: <\/a><\/strong><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/using-brand-names-songwriting-creative-perspective-business-prospective\/?campaign_id=7010Z000001ZkQgQAK&amp;pid=&amp;utm_source=takenote&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=bol-gen-takenote-link-from-article\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Using Brand Names In Your Songwriting<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNever does it go wrong to say a proper name in the title and first line of a song,\u201d says Hayes. \u201cEver. It always works. I mean, this got attention because it has Disney in the title. That\u2019s the fact. And Disney can get as mad as they want, but if they\u2019re smart, they\u2019ll be good sports about it.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although Salem is mad at Disney, she says Disney is not mad at her.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHollywood Records, which is owned by Disney, one of the A&amp;Rs that I know there called me when it was first released, way before it had blown up, just to say that he likes the song, and congratulations,\u201d says Salem, \u201cWhich was very sweet, and I was very nervous because the whole time I thought he was going to say, \u2018You have to take it down.\u2019 But they have not been hostile towards it at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Salem said that she hadn\u2019t thought about the effectiveness of writing brands into songs until she recently spoke with representatives from TikTok Japan. They explained that even with a language barrier, Disney is so popular in Japan that the song catches people\u2019s attention just with that one word. Salem says that she just gravitates towards unique song concepts in her writing.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI honestly had not thought about using that so much as a tool,\u201d says Salem. \u201cI usually start with a concept, and that ends up being the title. My music taste errs more left, so I tend to gravitate towards quirkier things and sounds. Especially lyrically, I really enjoy using words and unique phrases that you might not hear in most songs. So whenever I come across something like that, I get really excited.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1276\" height=\"958\" src=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Salem-Ilese_camo.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15160\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the smart lyrics, \u201cMad at Disney\u201d employs some sophisticated melodic and harmonic techniques, including embedded Disney musical cues, like \u201cWhen You Wish Upon a Star.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere&#8217;s something about the descending chord progression that it uses,\u201d says Hayes. \u201cIt\u2019s super clever for those of us who are nerdy enough to look into that stuff. It sounds vaguely familiar. It sounds a little bit Disneyesque. It has a bunch of levels that you can engage with it on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/podcast-episode-031-songwriter-bonnie-hayes-on-sexism-drugs-and-rock-n-roll\/?campaign_id=7010Z000001ZkQgQAK&amp;pid=&amp;utm_source=takenote&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=bol-gen-takenote-link-from-article\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Listen to Bonnie Hayes on the Music is My Life Podcast<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bonnie\u2019s songwriting instruction will be available to even more students, and at a graduate level, with Berklee Online\u2019s Songwriting Master\u2019s program coming in 2021. With a growing list of Berklee songwriting students gaining popularity, Hayes says the formal training that Berklee offers is important when vying for songwriting success.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf you want to make money from songwriting, you have to be able to do it on demand, which means you\u2019ve got to learn how to curate and to save your ideas, to organize your ideas, to develop them, to do revisions, and do a remix,\u201d she says. \u201cAll of that stuff takes technique and there\u2019s nobody else that teaches technique like we do.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/songwriting?campaign_id=7010Z000001ZkQgQAK&amp;pid=&amp;utm_source=takenote&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=bol-gen-takenote-link-from-article\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">STUDY SONGWRITING AT BERKLEE ONLINE<\/a><\/strong><\/em><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Salem Ilese and Berklee Songwriting Chair Bonnie Hayes discuss Ilese&#8217;s viral TikTok hit &#8220;Mad at Disney,&#8221; which has millions of streams on Spotify.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":15163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,9568,9566,9560,32],"tags":[6353,7716,6309,219,6345,7717,7715,6706,7712,7713,1318,7714],"class_list":["post-15156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-music-business-articles","category-songwriting-articles","category-spotlight","category-student-stories","tag-bette-middler","tag-blue-bear-school-of-music","tag-bonnie-hayes","tag-bonnie-raitt","tag-cher","tag-coke-and-mentos","tag-david-crosby","tag-disney","tag-mad-at-disney","tag-salem-ilese","tag-songwriting","tag-tiktok"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.8 (Yoast SEO v25.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Salem Ilese and Berklee\u2019s Bonnie Hayes on Viral TikTok Hit \u2018Mad at Disney\u2019 - Berklee Online Take Note<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Salem Ilese and Berklee Songwriting Chair Bonnie Hayes discuss Ilese&#039;s viral TikTok hit &quot;Mad at Disney,&quot; which has millions of streams on Spotify.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/salem-ilese-and-berklees-bonnie-hayes-on-viral-tiktok-hit-mad-at-disney\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Salem Ilese and Berklee\u2019s Bonnie Hayes on Viral TikTok Hit \u2018Mad at Disney\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Salem Ilese and Berklee Songwriting Chair Bonnie Hayes discuss Ilese&#039;s viral TikTok hit &quot;Mad at Disney,&quot; which has millions of streams on Spotify.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/salem-ilese-and-berklees-bonnie-hayes-on-viral-tiktok-hit-mad-at-disney\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Berklee Online Take Note\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/berkleeonline\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-05T21:10:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-19T21:57:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/salem_ilese_bonnie_hayes_mad_at_disney_article_image_2020.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Talia Smith-Muller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@berkleeonline\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@berkleeonline\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Talia Smith-Muller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/salem-ilese-and-berklees-bonnie-hayes-on-viral-tiktok-hit-mad-at-disney\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/salem-ilese-and-berklees-bonnie-hayes-on-viral-tiktok-hit-mad-at-disney\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Talia Smith-Muller\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/#\/schema\/person\/69dd3d17525a08ddce6c9b59d683cf9a\"},\"headline\":\"Salem Ilese and Berklee\u2019s Bonnie Hayes on Viral TikTok Hit \u2018Mad at Disney\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-05T21:10:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-19T21:57:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/salem-ilese-and-berklees-bonnie-hayes-on-viral-tiktok-hit-mad-at-disney\/\"},\"wordCount\":1422,\"commentCount\":5,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/#org\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/salem-ilese-and-berklees-bonnie-hayes-on-viral-tiktok-hit-mad-at-disney\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/salem_ilese_bonnie_hayes_mad_at_disney_article_image_2020.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Bette Middler\",\"Blue Bear School of Music\",\"Bonnie Hayes\",\"Bonnie Raitt\",\"Cher\",\"Coke and Mentos\",\"David Crosby\",\"Disney\",\"Mad at Disney\",\"Salem Ilese\",\"Songwriting\",\"TikTok\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Articles\",\"Music Business\",\"Songwriting\",\"Spotlight\",\"Student Stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/salem-ilese-and-berklees-bonnie-hayes-on-viral-tiktok-hit-mad-at-disney\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/salem-ilese-and-berklees-bonnie-hayes-on-viral-tiktok-hit-mad-at-disney\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/salem-ilese-and-berklees-bonnie-hayes-on-viral-tiktok-hit-mad-at-disney\/\",\"name\":\"Salem Ilese and Berklee\u2019s Bonnie Hayes on Viral TikTok Hit \u2018Mad at Disney\u2019 - 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