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"Caramelldansen" (Swedish for The Caramell Dance) is the first track and the lead single of the album Supergott released in November 2001 by the Swedish music group Caramell. It is also a popular Internet meme that began in the second half of 2006 in the Internet community 4chan.

The meme started as a fifteen frame Flash animation loop showing Mai and Mii, characters of the Japanese visual novel Popotan doing a hip swing dance with their hands over their heads to imitate rabbit ears, and the chorus of the sped up version of the song "Caramelldansen" sung by Malin and Katia from Swedish music group Caramell. The sped up version of the song is now known as "Caramelldansen (SpeedyCake Remix)".

Internet phenomenon

Background

Popotan first appeared as a Japanese PC game on December 12, 2002. After the anime was aired from July 17 to October 2, 2003, short GIF animations clips were created from the opening of the game and posted on the internet. It was not long before parts from the introduction of the PC game were captured too. Caramelldansen is also known as the "Uma uma dance" (ウマウマダンス) in Japan.

As the meme gained popularity, artists and fans started to copy the animation and include other characters performing the dance. The first ones were based only on the GIF animation loop. After Caramelldansen was released, most of the later animations were based on it. The real boom of the meme began at the end of 2007 in Japan (known as the "Uma uma Boom") where an explosion of different Caramelldansen versions appeared first in Japanese video-sharing site Nico Nico Douga and later reposted on YouTube by either the original authors or by fans.

Popularity

The meme is not limited to the small Flash animation loops. 3D animation shorts have been released performing the dance, and live action videos made by fans.

Caramelldansen is known in Japan as "Uma uma dance" (ウマウマダンス), because of the song chorus misheard lyrics (soramimi) of "u-u-ua-ua", ウッーウッーウマウマ (u- u- umauma, "uma" is suggested to mean "yummy", "nice" (うまい, umai, slurred: うめぇ umē-) or "horse" (馬, uma) in Japanese). The title sometimes adds (ﾟ∀ﾟ) to the end. Also part of the misheard lyrics "Dansa med oss, klappa era händer" ("Dance with us, clap your hands") make reference to "Barusamiko-su Yappa irahen de" ("(I) don't want any Balsamic vinegar after all" in the Kansai dialect) so the song has a different interpretation in Japanese than the original Swedish lyrics.

In April 2008, Japanese music distributor Quake Inc. gained the rights from the original Caramell producers, Remixed Records, to distribute the sped-up version of the original song in Asia, releasing first an album which included Caramelldansen and other popular meme songs at the time, this follows up an album sung by Toromi, the voice actor who played Mii in Popotan who sang her own version of the song, and follows a single and an album dedicated to the Swedish band. On May 25, 2008, Caramelldansen achieved number one in the international music chart in Japan for two weeks, and on June 2 managed to obtain number sixteen in the Japanese combined chart, beating Bon Jovi with their song "Have a Nice Day" the last one who entered that chart three years ago. One part of the song predicts its world-wide popularity. On May 1, 2008, Remixed Records released the sped-up version of the original Supergott album on Apple's iTunes Store. The album was called "Supergott Speedy Mixes". This was followed by the single "Caramelldansen Speedy Mixes" and on September 16 a single with the English version of the song called "Caramelldancing". A German version of the song, "Caramelltanzen", was released on April 15, 2009. On March 2, 2009, Caramelldansen was awarded single of the year (international section) in the 23rd Japan Gold Disc Award.

After the "U-u-uma uma" single was released in Japan on May 21, 2008, the original concept of the Caramell group was changed. First in Japan, Malin and Katia were replaced by their anime character counterparts, removing the rest of the band members, and later for the original Swedish release, all members were replaced by 3 anime-like girls called "Caramella Girls". The idea of the new Swedish concept came from Youtube, showing more than 16,000 different versions of the original flash animation, including small loops, complete song shorts and live action videos. "We are definitely not disappointed and we were never able to sing the song at this pace", said Katia Löfgren. "We do not know who developed the dance, but it is simple and is apparently very well liked in Japan," said Malin Sundström.

While the group Caramell disbanded in 2002, their music started to spread widely across the Internet thanks to the popularity of this Internet meme. Malin Sundström, one of the former singers of the group, commented on the popularity of the meme: "We felt that it was time to move on; that one of our songs now may be a breakthrough is just a bonus." Caramell's Juha "Millboy" Myllylä, responding to questions from Japanese show Netstar NHK, said that he first learned of the dance on YouTube. When asked if he does the dance himself, he responded "Yeah, well, the dance is very funny to do, so I used to do it every time, I mean in the shower, and I used to show my family and my friends to make them dance. I like it. It's very funny."

In July 2009, the Taiwanese gaming company Gamania launched an advertising campaign with the "Caramelldansen" song for the Japanese version of its online game Lucent Heart. "Caramelldansen" has also been used in Japanese arcade games. On November 18, 2009, an interactive game version of the dance was released for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. On November 23, 2009, the team behind popular comedy site LoadingReadyRun performed the dance made famous by the meme as part of a task in the Desert Bus charity appeal. The team chose to perform the dance to raise money for the charity Child's Play, founded by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik in 2003. The dance was also streamed by live web cam to those following the Desert Bus appeal through LoadingReadyRun and online gaming magazine The Escapist. In August 2010, the American Disney Channel show Phineas and Ferb used an imitation of the dance in their "Summer belongs to You" special, during their characters' stop in Tokyo, Japan.

On March 18, 2011, Caramella Girls launched their first single as a virtual group, the song "Boogie Bam Dance" was recorded by Caramell's original vocalists Malin and Katia and its available in 3 different languages (English, Spanish, and German).

Media

After 2008 official releases of the song and animation from this meme started to appear.

Music

Japanese

• Uma Uma Dekiru Trance wo Tsukutte Mita ("Tried making a trance you can Uma Uma to" ウマウマできるトランスを作ってみた) (Album - April 16, 2008)
• Toro☆Uma (とろ☆ウマ) (Album - May 11, 2008)
• U-u-uma uma (ウッーウッーウマウマ) (Single - May 21, 2008)
• U-u-uma uma (ウッーウッーウマウマ(゜∀゜)SPEEDアルバム) (Album - June 18, 2008)
• Caramelldansen (Official Japanese Version) (Single - December 3, 2009)

Swedish

• Supergott Speedy Mixes (Album - May 1, 2008)
• Caramelldansen Maxi (Single - June 25, 2008)

English

• Caramelldancing (Single - September 16, 2008)
• Caramelldancing (Christmas Version) (Single - November 26, 2009)
• Boogie Bam Dance (Single - March 18, 2011)

German

• Caramelltanzen (Single - April 15, 2009)
• Boogie Bam Dance (Single)

Spanish

• Boogie Bam Dance (Single - April 01,2011)

Television

• TV comercial for Gamania's Lucent Heart videogame.
• Special episode from Disney's cartoon Phineas and Ferb featured the main characters visiting Japan and dancing the Caramelldansen with an anime character.
• Clubland TV has the track with original Swedish lyrics on the playlist with a partially 3D animated video with the Caramella Girls.

Video games

• Step follow game for iPhone.
• In Eden Eternal, a free-to-play MMORPG from X-Factor and Aeria games, the Dance 1 character animation is identical to the Caramelldancen.

See also

• List of Internet phenomena
• Loituma Girl

References

1. Video documental of Caramelldansen popularity in Japan.
2. Japanese page Niconico showing a large number of Caramelldansen versions
3. Caramelldansen Around the World
4. Caramelldansen at Anime Convention
5. Miku Hatsune(Vocaloid Mascot) performing caramelldansen
6. Miku Hatsune performing Caramelldansen for ARToolKit test
7. Star Wars Storm Trooper doing Caramelldansen in Tokyo
8. Video documentary of Caramelldansen popularity in Japan.
9. Toro☆Uma Album
10. Japanese Caramelldansen discography
11. - Caramelldansen at number one on the Japanese International chart
12. - Caramelldansen at number sixteen on the Japanese combined chart
13. - oricon.co.jp music charts rank for Caramelldansen
14. - zip-fm.co.jp music charts rank for Caramelldansen
15. Swedish Caramelldansen discography
16. Recording Industry Association of Japan | Related Data
17. - New Carammel Japanese concept
18. - New Carammel Swedish concept
19. - Article(Swedish) - Caramelldansen hit and interview to Malin and Katia
20. - Youtube search for caramelldansen
21. Juha "Millboy" Myllylä (September year 2008title=The Net Star). NHK. Event occurs at 23:05. {{cite AV media}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
22. ルーハーCMちゃんねる3 (in Japanese). Gamania. 2009-06-28. Retrieved 2010-04-13. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
23. Uma uma soramimi compilation track list
24. www.jcast.com - Article about Caramelldansen
25. www.itmedia.co.jp - Article about uma uma CD
26. www.barks.jp - Article about uma uma CD
27. www.barks.jp - Uma uma CD track list
28. Official page of uma uma cd
29. QUAKE HOLDINGS INC. Uma Uma cd page
30. Uma uma Speed up track list
31. Caramelltanzen Single

External links

• Official website
• Caramelldansen official website Template:Ja icon
• Official youtube channel
• Official facebook page
• History of the Caramelldansen meme

• 2001 songs
• Caramell songs
• Internet memes
• Singles certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan