Musician Jude York Goes Viral Singing with Mom (Exclusive)

• Jude York was at his family home in Queensland, Australia, when he started to play ABBA’s “Slipping Through My Fingers” on piano
• As the singer-songwriter, 25, sang, something magical happened: his mom, who was hanging around in the kitchen, began to chime in
• York was lucky to capture the moment on camera. After they finished, he decided to post the video on TikTok, hoping others would relate to watching their parents age
• Then the video went viral — garnering more than 40 million views and 29,000 comments, with celebrities like SZA and Lili Reinhart chiming in

Jude York sat at the piano in his family home in Queensland, Australia, as he often did whenever he visited, since he doesn’t have a piano in his apartment. His parents, who now lived in Portugal, had returned for a visit, and the family was spending time together.

As he sat there, “Slipping Through My Fingers” — one of his all-time favorite ABBA songs — floated through his mind. He began moving his fingers over the keys, and soon his voice joined in with the lyrics. But as York, a singer-songwriter, sang, something magical happened: his mom, who was hanging around in the kitchen, began to chime in.

“It’s not unusual for us,” York, 25, tells PEOPLE exclusively of singing with mom Liza Beamish, 65. “We’re always singing together, and it’s not uncommon for us to just fall into a duet like that.”

“I was happy that we could have a little duet moment, and then she switched to harmony, which was also really beautiful,” he adds. “It took me back to the first show I ever did. She brought me into the world of music, and now I’m her only way back into the world of music, which is kind of surreal.”

York grew up in a musical family. Both of his parents worked in the music industry — his dad was a composer for TV commercials, while his mom was an opera singer. He recalls how, by the time he was 5, he was already listening in on Beamish’s rehearsals and attending her shows. By the age of 9, he began performing on stage with her.

The first time the mother-son duo performed together was in a big cathedral in Brisbane, in front of an audience of about 2,000 people, singing “Pie Jesu” by Andrew Lloyd Webber. “She was a very talented, larger-than-life performer who could, I guess, bring all these strangers to tears,” York says during the interview. “I was always there thinking, ‘What is Mom doing? Oh my God.’ ”

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Now, York and Beamish, who is retired, were singing together once again. But as they sang, York couldn’t help but notice how things felt different from when they used to perform together in his younger years. His mom seemed older and more fragile, especially given her current stage of life and recent health complications, which also made the song he randomly chose to sing even more meaningful.

“If you’re lucky enough to see your parents start to age and go through any sort of complications, whether minor or major, it is ultimately a privilege,” he says. “But it is also scary to see the passage of time and to watch your parents go from these immortal beings who seem to live forever and remain ageless, to suddenly realizing they’re fallible, mortal beings, and they’re getting older.”

“Gray hair, wrinkles … what’s happening? Stop,” he adds.

As they sang, York was lucky to capture the moment on camera.

After they finished, he re-watched the clip and decided to post the video on TikTok, hoping others would relate to watching their parents age. Then the video went viral — garnering more than 40 million views and 29,000 comments, with celebrities like SZA and Lili Reinhart chiming in in the comments.

“I didn’t expect anything from it at all. I just thought, ‘This is a nice little duet with Mom,’ totally separate from whatever is going on in my music career. This is just family,” he says. “The moment it happened, my first thought was, ‘What do I do now? Does this mean I need to record this?’ So Mom and I decided that we would record our own official version. We did the piano, vocals and production all within two days.”

“As we were recording the song, we both got emotional, wiping away tears, thinking, ‘Why is this hitting us so hard? This is just a song,'” he adds. “This was just a moment we happened to capture. But through creating it, it felt like we had captured a little snapshot of our own relationship.”

Reflecting on the meaning of the moment, York says it’s relatable to everyone, which he has come to recognize through the comments.

“The messages that touched me the most were from strangers — people I’d never heard of, from the other side of the world, who felt the need to reach out,” he says. “They told me they played the video for their mom, who was in the final hours of their life. That was a whoa kind of moment. Or people telling me they played the song for their newborn, just hours old. Or people who had just lost their parents, saying the song gave them hope.”

“That kind of stuff really made me realize how much bigger this song is than just me or this TikTok,” he adds.

Since going viral, York adds that his mom is often stopped on the street out of recognition. They’ll comment on her beauty or how talented both she and York are. He says she’s taken the fame far better than he has. “I get a bit of stage fright with all those people looking, but Mom was just like, ‘Hey, darling, what view were you on today?’ And I’m like, ’35 million, Mom.’ She was like, ‘Oh, amazing. Wow. Crazy.’ ”

“She’s very happy to see that connection and that moment resonate with so many people,” he adds. “She gave up singing professionally about five years ago, and a lot of her health has deteriorated since then. So she probably wouldn’t be able to get up on stage and give the performance she would like. It’s also cool to think that in the moments when she does get back into singing, it’s not just a tiny splash — it’s a big, big splash.”

“It’s been really great for her to read through the comments and see how people are still resonating with her, sending her such warm messages and telling her not to be ashamed of her hands shaking or anything like that, which has been really sweet,” he adds.

As for the future, York says he’s excited to continue growing as a musician and bring the community of more than 470,000 followers on TikTok and 267,000 on Instagram to life with live shows. He also plans to work on and release new music and would love to someday collaborate with artists including Chappell Roan and ABBA.

But when it comes to collaborating with his mom again, York says it’s all up to her.

“I never want to push her to do anything,” he says. “If this thing all takes off and the whole world wants to see Mom perform, it’s still her call at the end of the day whether she even wants to.”

“I think what people resonate with about her and us is the authenticity that she’s not out here hustling,” he adds. “She’s not trying to make it as a singer. She’s done with that. She’s just a mom and an individual and a person. She’s enjoying her life, she’s enjoying her family, and that’s her priority. So we’ll see. Maybe not. It just depends on, I guess, her and whatever happens out there in the world, if there’s a huge demand for it.”