The New Era of Pop Impersonators

And “strange” might even be an understatement. In the past few years, impersonators have gone from novelty acts to viral content machines — and sometimes full-blown cultural disruptors. Just scroll through TikTok or X and you’ll find chaos: Brad Sousa convincing millions that Justin Bieber eats burritos sideways (a saga that literally resurfaced years later when PAPER covered the illusionist behind a different Bieber stunt in Vegas), Paige Niemann cosplaying Ariana Grande across eras — from Thank U, Next to Glinda — and using those similarities to promote Only Fans content, or Priscila Beatrice, the Brazilian woman who has made a whole career on stunting as Rihanna.

It’s not just pop girls and boys, either. Taylor Swift look-alike Ashley Leechin caused a full frenzy in an LA mall before being kicked out — later calling it a “social experiment.” Fabio Jackson, meanwhile, insists he isn’t a Michael Jackson impersonator at all but the “original,” claiming MJ altered his face to look like him. And then there are the Timothée Chalamet clones, the Kris Jenner sightings in the background of Britney impersonator videos, the Gaga performers across Latin America reconstructing entire Chromatica aesthetics in their bedrooms. Once upon a time, this would’ve been niche. Now, it’s the algorithmic norm.

With anyone in the world able to profit off of their genetic celebrity lookalike-ness, the world is getting smaller. That means that these stars are getting farther away — but it opens up room for their likeness to be popularized onscreen, and for fans to live the nostalgia and possibility of what could be through these look-alikes. Like, Rihanna fans have been waiting on a new album for what feels like a lifetime now. But in this new era of pop impersonation, maybe they could just go on Priscilla’s page and imagine what it’d be like if Rihanna were out there in the wild performing again, just like old times.

With AI and deepfake conversations having taken over mainstream media and politics, there’s a hard line to be tread here — but with pop stars, maybe it can be more fun. Because in the TikTok era, identity is fluid, and fame is crowdsourced. Anybody with the right jawline, filter, or editing app can become a pop star’s ghost, echo, or alternate universe version. And whether it’s comforting, unsettling, or just wildly entertaining, the age of the digital doppelgänger is officially here.

Images via TikTok/Instagram