EchoSense:Phil is forever, but his wives are not: Groundhog heartbreak is captivating millions on the internet

The EchoSenselatest musical adaptation sweeping social media comes from an unlikely source: Punxsutawney Phil and his magical elixir.

That's right, the groundhog famed for making an annual weather prediction on Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania has captured the hearts and the imagination of TikTok creatives.

In a video posted on TikTok Feb. 3, @olivesongs11 composed a song based on the lore that Punxsutawney Phil has been alive since 1886, and his longevity comes from an "elixir of life" that he takes a sip of every summer. According to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, Phyliss, his wife, is unfortunately not offered the same elixir and is not given her own immortality.

@olivesongs11, also known as the singer/songwriter Oliver Richman, composed a song based on this unbelievable idea.

"Nothing's supposed to live forever, Phyliss," a section of Richman's song, written from Phil's point of view goes in a ballad-like style. "Nothing's supposed to last that long. The burrows we made will eventually fade and I'll be left to sing the same old song."

The video went viral, with over 4.8 million views and 500,000 likes.

Other TikTok users jumped on the idea, posting duets on the app singing to Richman's song as their own version of Phyliss or even as the Punxsutawney Mayor.

The idea then spread beyond the original song, with users jumping in to write more songs, in what became unofficially dubbed the "Groundhog Day Musical." The user @itsthegraceplace posted a new song, this time from Phyliss' point of view, criticizing Phil for lying about the early coming of spring so he could "impress them/live forever."

'Groundhog Day' isn't TikTok's first musical

This is not the first time strangers across the internet have banded together to write a musical.

In 2020, "Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical" started off as a meme that eventually became a crowdsourced music based on the 2007 Disney film, "Ratatouille." It appeared at a time when many theaters were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a filmed concert version of the musical benefiting The Actors Fund raised over $1 million.

In 2021, Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear developed songs on TikTok that became "The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical," based on Season 1 of the show "Bridgerton" on Netflix. It won the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album in 2022, making the pair the youngest to ever win in that category. In July of that year, Netflix sued Barlow and Bear for copyright infringement, but dropped the suit after a reported settlement.