Vietnam’s Catchy Coronavirus Song is Now a TikTok Dance Challenge

The coronavirus has inspired some pretty cringey tunes and awkward dance moves. But one Vietnamese song about the ongoing contagion has gone viral because people are dancing to it on TikTok as if it were Doja Cat’s “Say So.”

The groovy moves were first performed on TikTok by Quang Đăng, a Vietnamese dancer who has over 94,400 followers on the social media platform.

The dance is simultaneously educational and entertaining — it teaches people how to wash their hands thoroughly and with lots of swag.

Soon enough, the hashtag #vudieuruatay, which translates to #handwashingmove, began trending on TikTok, now with 14.5 million views.

People are posting videos of themselves doing the dance.

It got so popular that it was even featured on John Oliver’s show Last Week Tonight. In it, the British comedian joined the bandwagon with his own version of the dance.

As it turns out, the catchy coronavirus song is based on an already famous electro-pop track titled “Ghen,” sung by Vietnamese pop stars Erik, MIN, and Khắc Hưng in 2017.

While the melody of the coronavirus song was borrowed, its lyrics were felicitously adapted to warn people about the outbreak.

“Recently, we got a hot virus,” begins the song, “Its name is corona.”

Produced by Vietnam’s National Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health, the song goes on to remind people about good hygiene habits such as keeping personal spaces clean and not touching their faces.

The animated music video released last week could have easily become a cringe-inducing number like this one from the Singapore government. But with its hip, groovy beats and the creativity of one nifty netizen, this Vietnamese coronavirus PSA is making people bop along to hand-washing moves.

Boogie on, people.

Find Koh Ewe on Instagram.