(aka The Balloon Song Incident)
There are normal obsessions. And then there’s me in 2010-something, deep in a YouTube rabbit hole, accidentally discovering a song that technically wasn’t even released in the UK.
It was by a rapper called Manzini, and it was called — I swear I’m not making this up — “Balloon Song.”
I don’t remember how I found it. Maybe it was 3 a.m. and I’d just watched a chain of “related videos” that made zero sense. But the moment it started, something in my brain went click. The beat, the rhythm, the weird charm of it — I was instantly hooked.
It wasn’t on iTunes. It wasn’t on radio. It wasn’t even supposed to reach me. But it did — through the chaotic magic of early YouTube.
And when I say I got obsessed… I mean OBSESSED.
- Repeat-button-broken obsessed.
- Writing-lyrics-in-my-notebook obsessed.
- Pretending I’d “just found it again” months later so I could talk about it again obsessed.
It wasn’t about the song being famous or even “good” in a conventional sense. It was about how it felt — strange, shiny, hypnotic, and somehow comforting. The kind of track that slips under your skin and speaks directly to your very specific brand of weird.
Looking back now, I think that’s why I loved it so much. It wasn’t meant for everyone. It was just a random track floating through the internet, and for a little while, it found me — a kid who also felt a bit out-of-place, drifting but determined to stay bright.
So yeah. The Balloon Song. Not a chart-topper. Not a classic. But for one brief, blissful era, it was my secret soundtrack — proof that sometimes, the best discoveries are the ones we were never meant to make. 🎈💖
Your turn: Did you ever fall in love with a random deep-cut the UK never got? Drop your secret YouTube finds in the comments — I’m building a “forbidden bangers” playlist. 😉
Asten Does Nostalgia 
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