Baby Shark
You don’t need to have children to know that the infectious kids song “Baby Shark” wiggled its way onto everyone’s computer screens back in 2015, since earning almost three billion views thanks to a viral dance challenge.
The song from South Korean firm SmartStudy, the entertainment company behind children’s content brand Pinkfong, peaked at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, was covered by a ton of k-pop stars in addition to James Corden and John Legend, and is now going out on a live, 100-date North American tour.
Round Room Live’s co-president Stephen Shaw recently told Billboard, "The toughest part for us is taking the three minute viral video and being able to produce a live show for the stage. Thankfully Pinkfong has a large catalog of songs that we have access to, with more than 400 titles."
While they will be performing tracks from the Pinkfong catalogue, it’s still pretty crazy that the whole tour is based around one song. For that reason, we’ve decided to put together a “Baby Shark” timeline consisting of all the events that led up to this momentous tour.
James Corden covers the track -- Sept. 26, 2018
While wearing a full suit and playing the piano, Corden’s cover of the kids song is a classy affair. He even enlists Sophie Turner, Josh Groban and several sharks to help with the tune.
The song tops the LyricFind Global chart -- Oct. 27, 2018
After the track topped the LyricFind chart -- which ranks the fastest momentum-gaining tracks in lyric-search queries globally and in the U.S., respectively -- it was clear that it had officially gone viral. At that time, it also led the Kid Digital Song Sales chart for a sixth week.
It makes its way onto Billboard’s Streaming Songs at No. 49 -- Nov. 3, 2018
Additionally, the song gathered 13.1 million U.S. streams in the week ending Oct. 25 (up 55 percent), according to Nielsen Music. At this point, it was learned that fans were starting to listen to the track via streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify, not just YouTube.
“Baby Shark” is featured in “YouTube’s Rewind 2018” -- Dec. 7, 2018
“YouTube Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind” was jam-packed with memorable pop culture icons like Drake, Cardi B, Will Smith and, you guessed it…the colorfully-costumed kid show characters.
“Baby Shark” debuts in Billboard’s Hot 100 Top 40 -- Jan. 9, 2019
Thanks to the viral dance challenge, the song debuted at No. 32 on the list dated Jan. 12.
Nick Carter says his son can’t stop watching the video -- Jan. 11, 2019
Carter’s toddler Odin had him worried about “Baby Shark” dethroning a Backstreet Boys classic. He shared a video of his son completely mesmerized by the song on their TV.
Cardi B supports the song -- Jan. 25, 2019
After the rapper shared that her baby, Kulture, loves the song, she also revealed that she’s a fan, too. She took to Instagram to share a clip of herself strutting to the song, which naturally made it a little bit cooler.
The song is covered by several more celebs -- Feb. 15 - May 21, 2019
Back in February, Bebe Rexha covered the song, then John Legend and his daughter cover it together in March, Drag Star Marti Gould Cummings' performance goes viral that same month, and then Celine Dion learns the tune during a segment of Carpool Karaoke in May. Phew!
It is announced that a TV series based on the song is in the works -- June 5, 2019
Viacom’s Nickelodeon partnered with the team behind the viral song to develop an original preschool animated series based on it.
North American tour announced -- June 12, 2019
And finally, the moment all of this has been leading up to: a massive 100-date tour, all based around the one song that did it all.