Baby Shark! What is going on in Asia? The #BabySharkChallenge is taking southeast Asia by storm. The madness started in early August of 2017 in Indonesia and is quickly spreading! It starts with a children’s song, “Baby Shark”, where Baby shark, Mommy shark, Daddy shark, Grandma shark, and Grandpa shark go hunt, run away, and are safe at last! This is the cutest mind terrorism you will ever hear! After one time, you find yourself walking down the street singing “Baby Shark doo doo doo doo doo doo”, and quickly the infection spreads!

Pinkfong, based in Los Angeles, uploaded the song in June of 2016 to help children develop fine motor skills while providing a fun learning experience. According to Forbes, Baby Shark has become the most downloaded children’s app in South Korea, Bangladesh, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. What is so special about the app? Well the song! You can watch the original cartoon video in English, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish.

So, how did I enter the land of Baby Shark? Thursday and Friday I went to PyeongChang, South Korea site of the 2018 Winter Olympics to preview the venues for the February events. The Korea Tourism Organization and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism hosted YouTubers in Korea to visit both the Mountain cluster at the Alpensia Sports Park, and the Coastal Cluster in Gangneung. Thursday we toured the Alpensia Sports Complex where events such as opening and closing ceremonies, snow boarding, and ski jumping will take place. Just being at the venue caused excitement even though the athletes and spectators of the world were three months away. Thursday evening, after a fantastic dinner of Korean jungle soup, our sponsors announced that we would have korean fried chicken, or what I like to call second dinner!

The Korean family with the Twin Mom TV (쌍둥이 엄마 TV) YouTube channel invited us to their room to enjoy our second dinner. During which they shared how their Baby Shark Challenge dance went viral with over one million views. They said the key was to be K-Pop perfect! It is important that the moves are together with no mistakes. Somehow, that turns into a group of six dancing Baby Shark so we could make our own video. I expect that to pop up on Twin Mom TV at anytime. Well, after three hours of practice and our hotel neighbors banging on the walls for quiet at midnight, we had our Baby Shark video.

However, it was not until we visited the coastal city of Gangneung that I asked Twin Mom TV family to dance with in front of the ocean for my own Baby Shark Challenge. What you are seeing is hours of late night practice, forgetting the moves overnight, and a one take episode! The beginning is K-Pop perfect! Somewhere along the hunt everything begins to fall apart, but I know I will forever be a part of Baby Shark.

Have you made your #BabySharkChallenge video? If so, please leave a comment to your video! I would love to see it, YouTube @amymoncure!