Who Is Chris Rainbow – and Why Is “Be Like a Woman” Suddenly Everywhere?
One of 2026’s most fascinating viral songs isn’t from 2026.
It isn’t from the 2010s.
Or the 2000s.
“Be Like a Woman” was recorded by Scottish musician Chris Rainbow and released on his album White Trails in 1979.
Nearly half a century later, TikTok gave it an audience Rainbow could never have imagined.
The track eventually reached the Billboard Hot 100 in 2026.
Who was Chris Rainbow?
Chris Rainbow was the stage name of Christopher Harley.
He was a Scottish singer, songwriter and musician known particularly for his extraordinary layered vocals.
Rainbow developed a cult following for sophisticated pop that now sits comfortably beside the music of artists such as:
The Beach Boys
10cc
Alan Parsons Project
Electric Light Orchestra
and soft-rock musicians of the late 1970s.
He also worked extensively with the Alan Parsons Project.
When was “Be Like a Woman” released?
- It appeared on White Trails, Rainbow’s third solo album.
At the time, the song didn’t become anything remotely resembling the enormous international viral hit it would later become.
For decades it remained a relatively obscure piece of sophisticated late-70s pop.
Then the internet found it.
Why did it go viral?
The song’s warm production and unusual vocal texture fit perfectly with a modern appetite for dreamy nostalgia.
TikTok creators began using it in videos about ordinary pleasures, relationships, femininity and small moments of everyday life.
By September 2026 it is still appearing in TikTok trend tracking.
The sound somehow feels both old and new.
That’s a powerful combination.
Why does it sound surprisingly modern?
Because certain modern genres accidentally moved back toward sounds people like Chris Rainbow were already exploring.
Listen to contemporary:
dream pop
chillwave
bedroom pop
psychedelic pop
and then listen to “Be Like a Woman”.
The gap isn’t as large as 47 years suggests.
Layered voices, warm analogue textures and slightly hazy production are fashionable again.
The future eventually caught up with Chris Rainbow.
How big did the revival become?
Very big.
The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 in spring 2026, decades after its original release.
Reports around the revival noted millions of weekly streams and rapidly rising listening figures.
That makes it another extraordinary example of catalogue music becoming detached from release dates.
For a teenager discovering the song through TikTok, 1979 is just metadata.
The important question is:
Do I like this?
Did Chris Rainbow live to see the revival?
Sadly, no.
Rainbow died in 2015 following complications related to Parkinson’s disease.
That makes the story bittersweet.
An artist can spend decades with a relatively niche audience.
Then millions of people discover the music after they are gone.
What genre is “Be Like a Woman”?
Soft rock and pop are reasonable starting points.
But the song’s modern revival has led listeners to hear connections with dream pop and chillwave.
Genre becomes particularly interesting when old music is rediscovered.
The labels we use today didn’t necessarily exist when the music was created.
Sometimes an old recording sounds as though it belongs to a genre that hadn’t been named yet.
Songs like “Be Like a Woman”
If you’ve discovered Chris Rainbow through TikTok, try “Dear Brian”, “Looking Over My Shoulder” and “Solid State Brain” from his own catalogue.
Then move outward toward 10cc’s “I’m Not in Love”, The Beach Boys’ “All I Wanna Do”, Todd Rundgren’s “Hello It’s Me”, Electric Light Orchestra’s “Telephone Line”, Gerry Rafferty’s “Right Down the Line”, The Alan Parsons Project’s “Eye in the Sky” and Ambrosia’s “How Much I Feel”.
You may discover an entire musical world hiding behind one TikTok sound.
Why this revival matters
“Be Like a Woman” challenges the idea that music has a release cycle.
For decades, the industry worked roughly like this:
release song
promote song
chart song
move on.
Streaming and short-form video have broken that timeline.
A song can fail commercially in 1979.
Sleep for decades.
Then become a hit in 2026.
Music doesn’t necessarily expire anymore.
It waits.