Over the past couple of months, millions of TikTok users have encountered a familiar audio clip featuring a British female voice saying: “Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday”. The audio comes from a 2024 advert for the UK budget airline Jet2, voiced by actor Zoe Lister, promoting holiday packages from its tour operator subsidiary, Jet2holidays.
The audio, which begins with Jess Glynne’s 10-year-old song “Hold My Hand” followed by the phrase “Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday”, has become an online phenomenon, with users incorporating it into their social media videos.
On TikTok, the “Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday” sound has featured in around 1.4 million videos, many of which have garnered tens of millions of likes. The sound began gaining traction on TikTok in April when Jet2 launched a contest inviting fans to lip-sync to the audio for a chance to win flight vouchers.
According to Google Trends data from July, searches for the phrase reached an all-time high, becoming a breakout search term in the lifestyle category.
While the audio has an upbeat tone, many of the videos using it depict comical travel mishaps: being hit by water on a waterslide, narrowly avoiding a rebounding axe at an axe-throwing venue, and being touched in the face by an elephant’s trunk while on holiday in Thailand. The most popular video (35 million likes) shows a traveler dramatically pulling back a large curtain in a hotel room, expecting a stunning view, only to reveal a small window against a wall.
The trend has brought renewed attention to Jet2, voice actor Zoe Lister, and singer Jess Glynne. Jet2 capitalized on the trend, posting videos using the viral sound and promoting discounts on its website with a promo code inspired by the advert.
Lister has made several media appearances to recreate the viral phrase. In July, she met Glynne for the first time on Capital FM radio, where they performed the audio clip together.
Glynne also leveraged the trend to promote her new song “Back To Me,” writing: "200 EUR off for a family of 4 if you go stream ‘Back To Me’." She also acknowledged the trend during live performances, with fans chanting Lister's line while she sang “Hold My Hand.” The audio has even made its way into nightclubs, with DJs incorporating the entire advert into their sets.
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A Jet2 aircraft. Photo: *aerofly* |
Although the Jet2 advert was released in 2024, it went viral over a year later. The video currently has over 4 million views on YouTube. Jet2’s campaign using "Hold My Hand" dates back to 2022. In a late 2022 press release, the airline announced plans to continue using the song to promote holiday deals, such as discounts of 50 EUR (68 USD) per person or 200 EUR (around 270 USD) for a family of 4.
Jet2's long-standing association with “Hold My Hand” has previously drawn complaints from passengers. In 2018, music magazine *NME* reported that some passengers were tired of hearing the song repeatedly on flights. Glynne admitted on a radio show that she was unaware of how frequently Jet2 would use the song and apologized to those who were annoyed.
A Jet2 representative responded at the time: "‘Hold My Hand’ is very popular, and we’ve received lots of positive feedback from customers about both the advert and the song”.
In March of this year, Glynne marked the 10th anniversary of “Hold My Hand” on Instagram, writing: “Another 10 years and many more Jet2 plays to come!” The song topped the UK charts, reached number 86 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and was certified platinum in 2018.
Mai Phuong (*Forbes*, *ABC News*)
