How Burn The Jukebox became a worldwide TikTok sensation

WILKES-BARRE — Straight outta Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Burn the Jukebox just celebrated their five-year anniversary as a band. Since their debut they’ve been climbing with TikTok fame into the hearts of fans across the world, and all this while the band members are still in high school.

Burn The Jukebox will be the opening act for Philadelphia Freedom, rescheduled due to winter weather to Saturday, April 5, at F.M. Kirby Center.

Burn The Jukebox is engaging with their audience in a modern way and it’s working! They’ve amassed their fans through social media, mainly by covering a wide range of popular music across decades and genres.

“My parents for many years used to scorn me, like, ‘Hey, you can’t be on your phone so much. Come on, like do homework or something’. And now they’re on it because of us,” said bassist and vocalist Virginia Franks in a live interview with The Weekender.

Burn The Jukebox’s members found each other through mutual connections between family, friends, and school. Virginia Franks is on bass and vocals, Luke Vanchure is on guitar, and Carter Dennis is on drums. Luke and Carter are juniors while Virginia is a senior.

“It was all my fault,” said Virginia Franks. “So, when I was, I think, 11 or 12, I decided I wanted to be in a band because my parents were in a band for a long time, and I just always really enjoyed music.”

Burn The Jukebox blew up on TikTok and their newfound fame spread to other platforms. They funneled fans to their links and other profiles to create a massive following of 2.5 million, spreading like wildfire. They covered a song a day for over a year on social media, producing lots of videos and content to keep the interest flowing. Consistency became second nature after awhile and they stayed dedicated to it. Posting everyday paid off!

“Anyone can do it,” said Virginia. “That’s why I think it’s such a cool thing that we just happened to be super lucky on the algorithm, posting these videos and cranking them out. But, any person who wants to share their passion with the world or the internet, you’re a buddy ol’ pal!”

Burn The Jukebox sports a rock n’ roll attitude while merging it with alt-rock of the new age and their own style. They started out by covering a wide variety of songs, everything from Queen to Justin Timberlake to Luke Bryan to Fleetwood Mac to Lady Gaga. Some of their most viral videos include covers of “99 Red Balloons” by Nena, “Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi, and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears with millions of TikTok views each.

“Our target audience is definitely very close to our age, so that’s also lots of our fan group,” said Virginia. “So, I think what really makes them connect is that they see people close to their age doing big things and it makes them believe in themselves that they can do that too.”

Burn the Jukebox said they’re on the road to an album that they’ve been writing for the past couple months. Although they have a lot of demos out there and have found success on social media, they are looking forward to putting out a full album of their own original songs, something they are very passionate about.

Interestingly, the album they’re writing actually isn’t about them — it’s all about the fans. They turned to social media to crowdsource their stories from their very own followers. They were moved by the personal stories they received and were able to pull inspiration from submissions. For every song on the upcoming album, they picked a story that a fan sent in. There’s no shortage of incredible stories and they appreciate getting to engage with their fans on a whole new level, where they’re actively participating in their upcoming music too.

“I think they have so many stories to tell and a lot of them are around our age,” said Carter. “It’s just kind of cool to spread that because music gives people a voice. So, when we incorporate our own voice into the song, it’s a good combination of both.

Burn The Jukebox is a local band that was able to reach far beyond Northeastern Pennsylvania, which also adds to their diverse storytelling for the upcoming album. Their fans come from all over the world. Switzerland was big for them early on, and they’ve also captivating fans from the across Europe and beyond, from France to Singapore. This band of talented young musicians have become so popular and influential that they have also begun inspiring others close to their age to pick up instruments.

“It’s crazy to hear like, Hey, we started a band because we saw you guys on TikTok.” said Carter.

On Saturday, April 5, Burn the Jukebox finally has a chance to play a hometown show at F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre. They are all looking forward to entertaining family and friends in the crowd while opening for Philadelphia Freedom: A Tribute to Elton John.

“They’re fantastic musicians, all of them, and they’re just great people. I’ve known Doug (Delescavage) for quite a while. He’s Elton John actually.” said Carter.

“Doug just really makes the show like, so fun, SO fun. He’s just so happy all the time and he just brings all that happy energy with him everywhere he goes.” said Virginia. “—We all have lots of people coming and I’m excited to be able to play for people I know who’ve never seen us before.”

Burn the Jukebox has been busy travelling the country. They’ve played in Las Vegas, Nashville, St. Louis, and more from coast to coast! In November, Burn the Jukebox headed to Los Angeles and appeared on Pauly Shore’s PMS Podcast Show. One day, they hope they get to go across the pond to meet their fans abroad.

“We’re all over the place,” said Carter.

They have an upcoming national summer tour where they’ll be going around the country. They are looking forward to seeing new cities and meeting new people across the route.

So, how do they juggle being a mega rockstar and a regular teenager at the same time? They said they’ve had five years to get used to it. Although it can be challenging at times, the main thing is that they love what they do. So, whether it’s scribbling down songs in study hall or last-minute finishing up homework before the bell, they make it work.

“It started off as like a hobby and now it’s a job — but it’s like a dream job. So, I’m having fun at work all the time,” said Virginia.

They are moving away from covering older songs and onto a new era, which will definitely be demonstrated in their first studio album of original music. They’re taking inspiration from The Strokes, Kings of Leon, Deftones and more.

“You can tell on our TikTok lately, we’ve slowed down on the covers but, when we do post them, it’s more geared towards the style we’re headed toward,” said Carter.

Lately they’ve done Artic Monkeys, Title Fight, and other bands more related to the modern alt-rock scene.

See them walking the PA Red Carpet. Burn The Jukebox earned three nominations for the Central Pennsylvania Music Hall of Fame in 2025 and won for Best Youth Band, they were also nominated for best alt-rock band and for their original song, “Reflection (In Your Eyes).” They also won a Steamtown Music Award for Pop/Top 40 Act of the Year. You can hear them just about every day on WNEP, their song “Hello World” is one of the station’s theme songs.

“A goal is just that each year is bigger and better than last year,” said Carter.

Over the rest of 2025, they really want to focus on harnessing their sound and style, maybe even debut some coordinating outfits while defining their live performance attitude outside of social media. They want to find a style that suits the next stage of the band through this upcoming album.

“Not only figure it out personally, but then also the music. We want to really hone in on a sound that we all love, and we want to write and get more direct because we’ve done a ton of originals and I think now we’re starting to figure out who we are as a band,” said Carter.