Creators of the popular video “Baby Shark,” whose “doo doo doo” song was played at the World Series in October and has been a viral hit with toddlers around the world, have released a Navajo version of the tune.
Pinkfong, a brand of the South Korea company SmartStudy, announced it unveiled the new version Sunday after holding singing auditions on the Navajo Nation.
The project was launched after Navajo Nation Museum director Manuelito Wheeler reached out to SmartStudy in September about translating “Baby Shark” into Navajo. The museum previously had lobbied for Navajo versions of the movies “Star Wars” and “Finding Nemo” that were eventually made.
SmartStudy has translated the “Baby Shark” tune of the viral video in 19 languages, including English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, Arabic and Bahasa-Malay. Navajo Baby Shark, is the 20th language version of the tune. The Navajo Nation is the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. The Navajo word for shark is loo hashkehe, which translates to “angry fish.”
The original ” Baby Shark Dance ” video has garnered more than 4 billion views on YouTube. “Baby Shark” has been around for a few years, but took the world by storm last year when the song and video went viral with the nursery-school set, with little kids imitating the hand-clapping dance that went along with the video.
Books, plush toys, and other merchandise inspired by the song became hot-ticket items for the holidays and the “Baby Shark” tour was soon hatched.
