Tessa Violet with yellow curly hair standing under supermarket lights, hands behind her head

Tessa Violet

2018viral videodead

Published September 30, 2026

Tessa Violet is an American singer-songwriter whose 2018 single "Crush" was reframed as a Russian nationalist anthem by a VK meme community in late 2018. Fan edits overlaying the chant "Русские, вперед!" onto her music videos followed, turning a Nashville pop artist into an unexpected running joke about Russian imperial imagery.

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Overview

The Tessa Violet meme built on details from her "Crush" music video that Russian-language VK users read as coded nationalist symbols3. The community мемы для русских ("memes for the Russians") pointed to Violet wearing a Mishka/Мишка-branded pullover and her red-white-blue color palette matching the flag of Imperial Russia3. Her songs got reworked with the chant "Русские, вперед!" ("Go Russians!") dubbed over the choruses, treating a Nashville pop artist as a domestic patriotic figure.

Comments under the posts suggested that the page admin's personal affection for the singer drove her promotion into a house mascot (translated from Russian)9. From there the joke spread to other VK pages, framing Violet as a supporter of the Russian National State concept3. English-speaking fans first noticed the bit through an influx of upvoted Russian comments piling up under the "Crush" upload on YouTube1.

Origin & Background

Platform
VK (source) / YouTube (viral spread)
Creator
мемы для русских
Date
2018

Tessa Violet Williams first uploaded to YouTube on July 16, 2006 under the handle Meekakitty, growing her channel past 440,000 subscribers by mid-2010 with skits and lip-sync videos8. She released the single "Crush" in June 20181, the song that later became the vehicle for the meme.

The meme itself began on December 9, 2018, when Russian nationalist VK community мемы для русских posted a series of image macros portraying Violet as a Russian nationalist figure2. In a reply thread on one of the posts, the admin hinted that Violet's Mishka pullover was one specific trigger for adopting her as the page's running subject (translated from Russian)9. The frame quickly locked in around her hair color, wardrobe, and "Crush" visuals3.

How It Spread

The bit picked up steam through January 2019. On January 5, мемы для русских posted screenshots of upvoted Russian comments under the "Crush" video, most of them repeating the "Русские, вперед!" nationalist chant common to the wider meme set3. Three days later on January 8, YouTube user Пикрил П.К. uploaded an edit of "Crush" that layered the chant over the chorus, pulling around 45,000 views in a week4. On the same day, D.C.Prod dropped a similar treatment of Violet's "Bad Ideas" clip, which drew roughly 12,000 views in that same period5.

The joke hit English-speaking audiences on January 10, when Redditor justlikestosleep posted to r/OutOfTheLoop asking why Violet's comment sections had filled with Russian, prompting a top reply that walked outsiders through the VK backstory6. Violet herself acknowledged the edit on January 11, tweeting that she had watched Пикрил П.К.'s remix7. In now-deleted follow-up tweets referenced on the KYM entry, she noted the wave of Russian comments and said "Crush" had become a meme in Russia3.

Timeline

2006-07-16

Tessa Violet launches her Meekakitty YouTube channel.

2018-06

Tessa Violet releases the single "Crush," the future meme vehicle.

2018-12-09

VK community мемы для русских posts the first batch of Tessa Violet Russian nationalist image macros.

2019-01-05

The community posts screenshots of upvoted Russian comments under the "Crush" YouTube video.

2019-01-08

YouTube user Пикрил П.К. uploads a "Crush" edit dubbed with "Русские, вперед!" over the chorus; D.C.Prod posts a matching "Bad Ideas" remix the same day.

2019-01-10

R/OutOfTheLoop thread asks why Tessa Violet's "Crush" comments filled with Russian nationalist chants.

2019-01-11

Tessa Violet tweets about seeing the Пикрил П.К. remix and mentions "Crush" becoming a meme in Russia.

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