A mystery internet song has been identified!

Every once in a while I come across a story about a mystery song that no one can identify. All we have to go on is a audio fragment with no metadata. The most infamous of these tracks even has its own Wikipedia page: “The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet.” There’s even a big subreddit dedicated to it.

Occasionally, one of these mystery tracks is identified. This is one of those times.

Sixteen years ago, the internet began to buzz about a song everyone called “How Long.” It, too, had its own subreddit called HLWIT. This Russian bootleg video also made the rounds.

The mystery is now solved. A subreddit contributor with the handle “the-arabara” thought to search the database of SOCAN, Canada’s performing rights society, looking for songs with “How Long” in the title or lyrics. Boom!

The artist is Paula Toledo, a 52-year-old mom living in Vancouver. “How Long”–and yes, that’s the title–was recorded in a studio in Langley BC in 2003. Weirdly, though, the song was never given a proper commercial release. So how did it become such an internet obsession? “How Long” was licensed to a TV show and a made-for-TV movie. How it ended up on a Russian bootleg will remain a total mystery for now.

You can read the whole story here. Meanwhile, have a listen to the original recording which Toledo is now selling on Bandcamp and is streaming through the usual platforms.