Move over VIP lounge access, velvet-rope parties and secret handshakes, there’s a new club in town, and it’s called Group 7. But before you start polishing your membership card, don’t worry — much like Jake Paul’s recent AI ‘cameo’ chaos, this club isn’t actually real. Still, tons of people are calling themselves members, and the internet is eating it up.
It all started on Friday, October 17, when 26-year-old indie musician Sophia James — a Season 18 American Idol alum who made it to the show’s Top 11 — decided to “bully the algorithm.” In a late-night burst of inspiration, she posted seven nearly identical TikToks back-to-back, each labeling viewers as part of a numbered group. Her latest single, So Unfair, played in the background.
In the seventh video, James looked straight into the camera and said, “If you’re watching this, you are in Group 7. I’ve posted seven videos tonight and this is the seventh one. Just a little science experiment to see which one gets the most reach.” The 24-second clip took off almost immediately, gaining millions of views overnight.
When she woke up, Group 7 had become the internet’s hottest ticket. “Like Alakazam,” she told The New York Times in a recent interview. “The Group 7 video had hit the algorithm, and people just made it explode, and it became this hilarious, unexpected internet moment.”
The premise was absurdly simple, yet the internet treated it like gospel. Anyone who saw the seventh video claimed membership in the newly minted “Group 7,” proudly posting TikToks, memes, and comment threads celebrating their status. The algorithm fed them more Group 7 content, reinforcing the illusion of a real, elite club. Before long, the trend mutated into a full-blown identity badge.
Celebrities jumped in too. Naomi Osaka posted a clip captioned, “If you’re not in Group 7, keep scrolling.” Outer Banks star Madelyn Cline greeted her followers with, “Good morning, Group 7 baddies.” Shark Tank mogul Barbara Corcoran flexed with, “How it feels waking up in Group 7.” Even Dancing with the Stars pro Ezra Sosa and sports franchises like the San Francisco 49ers, PGA Tour, and Empire State Building chimed in with their own “how it feels to be Group 7” riffs.
“I think we all just collectively decided that Group 7 were the cool people, the it-people, the baddies,” one influencer joked in a video that summed up the phenomenon. “You’re either in Group 7 or you’re no one.”
The sudden spotlight has been good for James. She’s gained more than 100,000 new followers, seen her streams soar, and watched So Unfair become a trending TikTok sound.
But as for figuring out why this one hit? She’s as puzzled as anyone. “In some ways I feel like I’ve learned some things,” she told the Times. “And in other ways, I’m more lost than when I started.”