Baby Shark

"Baby Shark" is a children's song about a family of sharks. Long popular as a campfire song, it has become globally popular since 2016, spreading through social media, online video, and radio.

Origins
"Baby Shark" likely originated from a campfire song or chant. Some sources have mentioned traditional myths as a basis, others camping origins in the early 20th century, and some see it as possibly developed by camp counselors inspired by the movie Jaws. It became a campfire song where each member of a family of sharks is introduced with different hand motions. Different versions of the song have the sharks hunting fish, eating a sailor, or killing people, who then go to heaven.

Alemuel version
A dance version of "Baby Shark" was popularized online in a 2007 YouTube video named "Kleiner Hai" (German for Little Shark) and published by Alexandra Müller, also known by her stage name Alemuel. This version is set to the theme of Jaws and tells the story of a baby shark who grows up and eats a swimmer. The video gained popularity shortly after and Alemuel was offered a record deal by the label EMI, which published the song accompanied by disco beats on May 30, 2008. The single peaked at place 25 of the German charts and place 21 of the Austrian charts. Based on the single and the original video, the YouTube community created a popular music video which is a typical example of crowdsourcing. The German version of the song remains popular among German youth groups and multiple variations (also in different dialects of German ) have been published since it first gained popularity in 2007.

Pinkfong version
The "Baby Shark" song was further popularized by a video produced by Pinkfong, an education brand within South Korean media startup SmartStudy. The original video for "Baby Shark" was uploaded on November 26, 2015. All videos related to Pinkfong's song have garnered around 5 billion views, making it the most-viewed educational video phenomenon of all time.

This version of the song was performed by 13 year-old Korean-American singer Hope Segoine. The music video featured two child actors, one of whom is child actress Elaine Johnston, a 9 year-old New Zealander of Korean–Scottish descent.

The song starts with bars from Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 which are reminiscent of music from the movie Jaws. The song features a family of sharks which go hunt a school of fish which escape to safety. It became a viral video in Indonesia in 2017, and throughout the year it spread to many other Asian countries, particularly those in Southeast Asia. The related mobile app was among the top 10 most downloaded in the family apps category in South Korea, Bangladesh, Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia in 2017.

, the most popular video of the "Baby Shark" song (labeled as "Baby Shark Dance"), uploaded on June 17, 2016, has received over 3.3 billion views worldwide, making it the seventh most viewed video on YouTube. Due to a 2012 change that the Billboard Hot 100 music charts made to account for online viewership of YouTube videos, "Baby Shark" broke into the Billboard Hot 100 at #32 during the week of January 7, 2019.

Due to its popularity, this version of the song has spurred an online dance craze (sometimes referred to as Baby Shark Challenge) while being cited as "the next big thing after the domination of Gangnam Style". K-pop groups including Black Pink have been credited with further spreading the viral song through their coverage of the song and dance, specifically on their featured TV shows and concerts. The song began to go viral in the Western world in August 2018.

Controversies
While the English version just listed members of the shark family, the Korean version says Mommy Shark is "pretty", Daddy Shark is "strong", Grandma Shark is "kind", and Grandpa Shark is "cool". In January 2018, the South Korean newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun published a front-page editorial condemning these lyrics as sexist.

In May 2018, the Liberty Korea Party started using "Baby Shark" to promote its candidates, prompting SmartStudy to threaten legal action over copyright infringement. Prior to this, the Liberty Korea Party had contacted American children's entertainer Johnny Wright (aka Johnny Only) to inquire about permission, as he had published a similar version in 2011. He had heard a version of "Baby Shark" 20 years earlier, and decided to make a kids' version by removing any violent imagery from the song, instead focusing on the family. "I was the first one that did that," he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. "And basically Pinkfong's version does the same thing." Only has been working with a Korean copyright lawyer and the case is before the Korean courts.

In July 2019, officials in West Palm Beach, Florida, were criticised for playing a continuous loop of "Baby Shark" throughout the night outside the Waterfront Lake Pavilion as a way of deterring vagrants.

Legacy
it was rumoured that Netflix was planning a television series based on the franchise, but there is no Netflix press release to this effect, and the rumours appear to be unfounded. Pinkfong has announced intentions to release an animated series based on the song in a YouTube video released in 2018; however, a specific release date has not been announced.

In July 2019, Kellogg's announced that it has entered a partnership with Pinkfong to introduce a new Baby Shark cereal, a berry-flavored variant of Froot Loops with marshmallows added. It will first be available at Sam's Club stores on August 17, and then Walmart in late September.

Other performances
In September 2018, Ellen DeGeneres released her own version of the song on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and James Corden performed a version on The Late Late Show with James Corden. The song was performed on The X Factor in early December 2018 because it was requested by Simon Cowell's four-year-old son Eric. The song was also performed on Lithuania's X Faktorius by 16-year-old contestant Lukas Zazeckis. The song was also used in the commercial of Shopee in Southeast Asia.

Drag queen and contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race Yvie Oddly adapted the song for live lip-syncing performances, including a choreography that draws inspiration from voguing.