Baby Shark

"Baby Shark" is a children's song associated with a dance involving hand movements dating back to the 20th century. In 2016, "Baby Shark" became very popular when Pinkfong, a South Korean entertainment company, released a version of the song with a YouTube music video that went viral across social media, online video, and radio. In January 2022, it became the first YouTube video to reach 10 billion views. In November 2020, Pinkfong's version became the most-viewed YouTube video of all time, with over 13 billion views as of August 2023. Origins and early history The original song dates back to the 20th century. Various entities have copyrighted original videos and sound recordings of the song, and some have trademarked merchandise based on their versions. However, according to The New York Times, the underlying song and characters are believed to be in the public domain. A dance version of "Baby Shark" was popularized in the 2007 YouTube video "Kleiner Hai" (German for Little Shark) 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 quickly gained popularity and led to EMI offering Alemuel a record deal. The single peaked at 25th in the German charts and at 21st in the Austrian charts. The German version of the song remains popular among German youth groups, and multiple variations, also in different dialects of German, have been published.