Lofi Girl (formerly ChilledCow) is a French YouTube channel and music label best known for its round-the-clock livestream “lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to”, which loops an animation of a girl studying at her desk (Wikipedia). The girl became an internet meme, and the channel took her name in 2021.
Origin
- 18 March 2015. Dimitri Somoguy creates the YouTube channel “ChilledCow” (Wikipedia).
- 2017. ChilledCow begins streaming lo-fi hip hop. The early stream loops footage of Shizuku Tsukishima studying in the Studio Ghibli film Whisper of the Heart (1995), and is taken down between July and August 2017. In September 2017 the stream returns with a custom animation of a girl studying (Wikipedia).
- The illustration. The animator Juan Pablo Machado, a Colombian-French artist who moved to Lyon in 2013 to study, created the character after answering a call for artists received by his school. Wikipedia’s own sections disagree on the year (2017 in one, September 2018 in another). Wikipedia says the channel began using the Lofi Girl in its streams in March 2018 and that “the character quickly went viral”.
How It’s Used
The stream became a default soundtrack for studying and working, and “Lofi Girl” is used both for the channel and for the character. The music is released through the channel’s own label or used with the artist’s permission (Wikipedia). The channel told TechCrunch that all of its music is released through its record label, Lofi Records. For the genre itself, see #LofiHipHop.
Timeline
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 18 Mar 2015 | ChilledCow channel created by Dimitri Somoguy | Wikipedia |
| Jul–Aug 2017 | Stream using Whisper of the Heart footage taken down | Wikipedia |
| Sep 2017 | Stream reinstated with a custom animation of a girl studying | Wikipedia |
| Mar 2018 | Channel begins using the Lofi Girl character | Wikipedia |
| Feb 2020 | The main stream had been viewed 218 million times | Wikipedia |
| Feb 2020 | YouTube briefly removes the channel without explanation, then reinstates it after public backlash | Wikipedia |
| 2020 | An accidental suspension ends a stream that had run for 13,000 hours | TechCrunch |
| 18 Mar 2021 | Rebrand from ChilledCow to Lofi Girl announced | Wikipedia |
| 2 Feb 2022 | Channel reaches 10 million subscribers | Wikipedia |
| 10–12 Jul 2022 | Two streams taken down over a false copyright claim; streaming resumes 12 July | Wikipedia, MusicTech |
| 11 Apr 2023 | Third livestream launched, with a character the community calls “Synthwave Boy” | Wikipedia |
The July 2022 Takedown
On 10 July 2022, YouTube took down two of the channel’s streams after a DMCA claim from the Malaysian label FMC Music (Wikipedia). MusicTech reported that the claim “originated from a label named FMC Music Sdn Bhd Malaysia”, and that the stream had been “running non-stop for over two years”. TeamYouTube said it had “confirmed the takedown requests were abusive & terminated the claimants account” (TechCrunch). FMC Music said hackers had filed the claims, and Lofi Girl resumed streaming on 12 July (Wikipedia).
Recent Developments
The channel has moved into brand partnerships. Wikipedia records a partnership with The Lego Group in 2023 and a collaboration with Ubisoft in March 2025 tied to Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The character, officially named Jade, remains the face of the channel.