Baby Shark Becomes The First YouTube Video To Reach 10 Billion Views

Every parent's, grandparent's, uncle's and aunty's most hated song has now been written into the history books.

'Baby Shark' has become the first video in YouTube history to reach 10 billion views.

It debuted in 2016 and quickly became a viral sensation amongst kids who loved singing the easy lyrics and doing the shark dance moves.

According to The Guardian, in the five years since 'Baby Shark' was released, it's still unclear about who the original writer of the track is.

The song was a nursery rhyme long before it was recorded by 10-year-old Korean-American singer Hope Segoine for the 2016 song.

The track itself is in the public domain, but it became famous when it was released by educational company Pinkfong. It first went viral in south-east Asia, before spreading to the rest of the world.

There will no doubt be loads of parents or guardians out there who wish Pinkfong never released that track but hey, here we are.

Guinness World Records revealed the music video rolled into the 10 billion club on January 19.

The track overtook Luis Fonsi's 'Despacito' in 2020 as the most watched YouTube video, however that classic track still remains the most liked clip on the site with 47 million compared to 33 million for 'Baby Shark'.

Some of the views from 'Baby Shark' come from pretty dark places.

Former inmates at a US prison launched a lawsuit against their jailers for playing Pinkfong's song on repeat.

Daniel Hedrick, Joseph 'Joey' Mitchell and John Basco filed the civil rights lawsuit in November last year, two years on from being put through what their attorneys described as 'torture events' at Oklahoma County jail, according to The Oklahoman.

A criminal investigation found that at least four inmates were forced to listen to the popular children's song on repeat and at high volumes for extended periods of time in November and December in 2019.

The disciplinary action took place in the visitation room of the jail, where prisoners were made to stand with their hands cuffed and secured to a wall.

Two former prison officers and their supervisor were charged with misdemeanour counts of cruelty to a prisoner and conspiracy, and a jury trial in the criminal case is set to take place in February.

Featured Image Credit: Pinkfong

Topics: Entertainment, Music, YouTube

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie