‘Sigma Boy’: How a song by Russian teens made it onto the ‘Billboard’ chart

In the comments, some wrote that the song should be topping the chart, while others didn't even know the performers were from Russia. 

The track was released in October 2024 and immediately took off. It has since racked up 53 million views on YouTube and more than 30 million listens on Spotify. And hundreds of bloggers are dancing to it on Russian and foreign social networks. 

“The song is not just recognized, it is sung at every turn,” said Maria's mother, media producer Alina Yankovskaya. “We are now with Masha [Maria – ed.] on tour in Europe and we are recognized everywhere: on the street, in the subway, in restaurants. And in Germany and in Italy. In Prague, a whole crowd of fans gathered on the Charles Bridge to take pictures and autographs with us. Even in Liechtenstein, in a cafe where we stopped for a snack, a crowd of kids recognized Masha and started singing 'Sigma Boy'!”

The lyrics are simple, “Sigma Boy, every girl wants to dance with you,” and the music is catchy. Mikhail Chertischev, Svetlana's father, worked on this song. He himself is a composer and creates music for cartoons. 

Men who did not fit into the framework of society call themselves ‘sigmas’. In this song, a ‘sigma’ is also a guy who is very popular with women. 

As Alina explains, the girls are now working on creating a music video for this song. “It will be high-budget and bright, with interesting directorial finds. There will definitely be new songs: solo and duet, we won't reveal all the secrets yet!”

Svetlana Chertishcheva lives in St. Petersburg and Maria Yankovskaya in Moscow. Both of them still go to school. Svetlana has been recording songs and running social networks for several years, while Maria is a blogger and a regular presenter on Russian children's TV channel ‘STS Kids’.