How Jess Glynne’s ‘Hold My Hand’ Became TikTok’s Unlikely 2025 Holiday Anthem
Jess Glynne, Jet2 and TikTok: How Hold My Hand Became the UK’s Song of 2025
Jess Glynne’s 2015 smash Hold My Hand has just been crowned TikTok’s UK song of 2025, thanks to a wildly catchy Jet2holidays advert and the viral “nothing beats a Jet2holiday” trend. Nearly a decade after its release, the track has been reborn as the unofficial anthem of British escape fantasies, proving that in the age of TikTok, no pop song is ever really “old.”
This isn’t just another case of a throwback getting nostalgic love; it’s a neat snapshot of how advertising, algorithmic feeds and fan creativity now work together to rewrite the pop charts — and a reminder that sync deals can be as powerful as any playlist placement.
From 2015 Chart-Topper to 2025 TikTok Sensation
When Hold My Hand first landed in 2015, it was classic mid‑2010s UK dance-pop: euphoric piano chords, a big festival chorus, and Jess Glynne’s raspy, radio‑ready vocal. The song hit number one on the UK Singles Chart, powered by club spins, radio rotation and the tail end of the iTunes era. It already had a respectable pop legacy long before TikTok existed in its current form.
Fast‑forward to 2025, and the song has jumped timelines. Instead of being a nostalgic playlist staple, it’s now a living, breathing meme sound on TikTok UK, with huge engagement figures, millions of views and a whole new wave of listeners who were at primary school when it first came out.
“It’s mad to see this song get a second life like this. I wrote it about support and connection – now it’s soundtracking people’s holidays and memories all over again.”
— Jess Glynne, reflecting on the track’s resurgence (as reported in recent UK press)
The Jet2holidays Advert: When a TV Sync Becomes a Meme Engine
The real accelerant here is the Jet2holidays advert. The airline’s TV spots, built around Hold My Hand, lean heavily into aspirational imagery: slow‑motion pool shots, sun‑drenched beaches, families finally getting their break from the grey. Over the top, Glynne’s chorus lifts the whole thing into something almost aggressively feel‑good.
TikTok users did what TikTok does best: they took the advert’s earnest tagline vibe — often paraphrased online as “nothing beats a Jet2holiday” — and turned it into a flexible meme format. People started lip‑syncing, parodying the ad’s glossy optimism, or using the track over their own travel content, from budget city breaks to staycations that were… slightly less glamorous than the commercial promised.
That repetition matters. TV ads run in the background of UK living rooms all day; TikTok clips are replayed, stitched, duetted and remixed. Together, they created a closed feedback loop where the same 15 seconds of Hold My Hand seemed literally inescapable — which is exactly how you turn a sync placement into a cultural moment.
Inside the “Nothing Beats a Jet2holiday” TikTok Trend
On TikTok, the trend blended sincerity and irony in a way that’s very 2025. Some creators genuinely used Hold My Hand to soundtrack their long‑awaited trips abroad. Others leaned into the melodrama of the chorus to highlight the gap between expectation and reality — think delayed flights, rainy “beach” weekends, or chaotic group holidays that were anything but relaxing.
Common formats included:
- Before vs. After Holiday – Glam airport outfit vs. sunburnt, exhausted return.
- POV memes – “POV: you hear this Jet2 song and suddenly you’re booking flights you can’t afford.”
- Workplace escapism – Office workers pairing the chorus with shots of spreadsheets and grey commuting.
Crucially, whether people were mocking or embracing the advert, the audio stayed the same. Every jokey stitch still counted as another play for Hold My Hand, boosting it up TikTok’s internal charts and ultimately securing that “TikTok UK song of 2025” crown.
“On TikTok, songs are less ‘released’ and more ‘discovered’ — often years after they came out. The audience decides when a track’s time has really arrived.”
— Comment from a UK digital music strategist, speaking to entertainment press
Why Hold My Hand Works So Well as a Viral Sound
Not every advert song ends up dominating TikTok. Hold My Hand has a few built‑in advantages that made it perfect meme fuel:
- Immediate, hooky chorus: The intro’s piano riff drops quickly into a big, sing‑along refrain. TikTok’s 15–20 second sweet spot is baked into the songwriting.
- Emotional but flexible lyrics: Lines about support and connection work for romance, friendship, holidays, or pure escapism. Creators can apply it to almost any narrative.
- Familiar but not overplayed (anymore): The song was a hit, but enough time has passed that its return feels like a fun throwback rather than a tired retread.
- Clean, bright production: The track cuts through on phone speakers — an underrated but essential factor for TikTok success.
Musically, it sits in the same “late‑blooming hit” category as tracks like Another Love (Tom Odell) or Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush) — songs that found new emotional resonance when a younger generation contextualised them around their own experiences, from heartbreak to, apparently, flight deals.
Strengths, Weaknesses and the Culture of Inescapable Ad Songs
There’s a split reaction to Hold My Hand’s 2025 dominance. On the plus side, it’s a genuinely strong pop record, and its resurgence shows TikTok users aren’t only chasing new releases — they’re happy to resurrect catalog songs when they hit the right emotional nerve. For Jess Glynne, it’s brand‑new streaming numbers and a refreshed public profile without releasing a new track.
On the other hand, there’s a certain fatigue. Many UK viewers feel like they can’t escape the Jet2 advert, and by extension the song itself. The meme culture that made it popular is the same force that can make an audio feel overcooked in record time, especially when it jumps from your TV to your For You Page and back again.
Culturally, it underlines a broader shift: brand campaigns are no longer separate from music fandom. A holiday advert can kick‑start a “summer anthem” narrative more effectively than a traditional single rollout, raising fair questions about who really controls which songs break through.
What This Means for Artists, Labels and Advertisers
For industry watchers, Hold My Hand topping TikTok’s UK rankings is another case study in how fractured — and opportunistic — the modern music ecosystem has become. Labels are increasingly treating catalog tracks as active assets, ready to be pitched for syncs or seeded on social platforms whenever a brand or influencer moment lines up.
Advertisers, meanwhile, are well aware that a good music choice can double as a stealth chart campaign. A song that feels “sticky” in a 30‑second spot is more likely to migrate organically to TikTok, where audiences do the promotional heavy lifting for free.
For artists, the lesson is less about chasing virality and more about catalogue resilience: write songs that can live beyond their original release window, emotionally and sonically. In 2025, the slow burn is sometimes slower — but also much bigger.
Verdict: A Holiday Anthem for the Algorithm Age
In 2025, Hold My Hand isn’t just a Jess Glynne single from 2015; it’s a case study in how songs can time‑travel. Powered by a Jet2holidays campaign and the “nothing beats a Jet2holiday” TikTok meme, it’s become the UK’s TikTok song of the year — half genuine feel‑good anthem, half shared cultural in‑joke.
As a piece of pop, it holds up: catchy, emotionally open and built for communal sing‑alongs. As a phenomenon, it highlights how advertising and social media now shape which tracks define a year. If nothing else, it suggests we’ll be hearing a lot more from the ghosts of chart hits past — all waiting for the right trend to bring them back into the sun.
