Cera Gibson aka Daddy 

• Ben Morgan
• Cera Gibson

Cera Gibson is known to be a lot of things: singer, songwriter, performer. She has a large online following, growing every day, where she's known as a comedian and social commentator who doesn't pull her punches. Now, with her latest single, she has an additional title: Daddy.

Oddly enough, this isn't the first time Gibson has been referred to as daddy. Her more than 400k followers on TikTok have lovingly nicknamed her Mommy/Daddy—unrelated to her newest single, but it all fits nicely together in the lore of what makes Gibson such an alluring musical artist and content creator.

"I made a video that was in support of they/them pronouns about two years ago where I was making fun of people that are like, 'English is English, it's never changed, you can't go about changing it now,'" she said. "I just started speaking in old English and reciting Beowulf and being like, 'That's English too. What's your argument?'"

Because Gibson didn't have her pronouns in her bio on TikTok, fans began joking that her pronouns were mommy or daddy, leading to her taking on the mommy/daddy moniker. "I grew up super LDS. I'm not anymore, and there was such a fixation growing up on my gender and being a certain particular kind of woman," she said. "I found that in adulthood, I don't feel very comfortable putting a lot of emphasis on my gender, so I would just be like, call me whatever you want. I really don't care."

In her musical career, she's been known as an "elegant captivating presence," while online her presence is "irreverent and ludicrous, with a wry, raunchy demeanor," according to her website. Her new single, "Daddy," aims to marry those worlds together. "Interestingly enough, I never intended to utilize comedy in any way," Gibson said. "During the pandemic, I started my TikTok account, and I was just posting whatever came to mind. For whatever reason, people were super into it and it built me an audience of almost 400,000 people. So now I'm trying to merge them together."

While her new single and her online persona go hand in hand, it's actually a coincidence that they did. Gibson wrote the song in 2020, before her TikTok following came to be, and when she had just started dating someone new. "He is this big masculine macho dude, but he's so sweet and kind," she said. "He works so hard, and so suddenly I received this inspiration of, 'I want you to call me daddy,' but in the sense that 'I want to be a safe space for you. I want to take care of you so you can let your masculinity down and be a person.' It's fun, it's silly, but it came from a place of wanting to dismantle masculinity."

It seems like it was meant to be—and at the perfect time, too, because bringing her worlds and careers together is important to Gibson at the moment, as she feels like it will strengthen both. "It's like I'm having two parallel careers next to each other, and both of them are wonderful and have their own challenges and achievements happening," she said. "I think for me to be able to sustain it effectively and really give each of them what they need, bringing those audiences together so that they're aware of each other and I can be aware of them on either platform will just aid in building them."

"Daddy" is truly Gibson's best musical effort yet. Upon pressing play, listeners are greeted with pillowy, smooth vocals that lead you into an effortless R&B beat. The song perfectly encapsulates the intimacy she wanted to capture while sounding sultry and sexy. Gibson's well-controlled vocals are addictive, especially as she goes up into a satisfying falsetto to sing the key word on the track: "daddy." The song is plain beautiful, calming, and a treat to listen to. If the SLC pop icon keeps putting out high quality tracks like this one, we're all in for a marvelous ride.

The year just past was a busy one for Gibson. She dropped her EP Uninspired, went on her first tour and put a lot of work into releasing "Daddy." "I feel like this year just flew by because I had the whole thing planned out ahead of time," she said. "I'm really having a lot of fun leaning into this mommy/daddy thing. I'm having more fun with my lyricism. I was very broody and intentionally hyper-artistic for a while, which is great, and I still love that. But going into 2023, I'm just trying to make it a little bit sillier, more tongue-in-cheek and more fun in that way."

If 2023 is anything like 2022 for Gibson, we're in for a treat. "I'm going to be trying to put out a lot more music," she said, adding that there's plans for tons more music and touring. Playing live shows especially made her realize how fun it is to get out there and connect with fans.

While "Daddy" is a great song with a killer vibe, Gibson wants to let listeners know not to expect any one particular thing from her, or that she will do the same things over and over. "My music, my content, myself, it all evolves throughout the years of my life," she said. "I'm not someone that I feel like I need to be tied to a particular brand or a particular genre of music."

Follow Cera Gibson on TikTok and Instagram for updates on future shows and funny content. Listeners can also check out her website, ceragibson.com for updates. You can also catch Gibson opening for Sasha on Friday, Feb 10 at The DLC in Salt Lake. Tickets for the 21+ show are $10 and can be found at quartersslc.com.