The latest viral dance trend to sweep TikTok might sound familiar to noughties pop fans, as the soundtrack is actually the remix of a song by British popstar Natasha Bedingfield.
Nearly every day, unexpected songs and remixes end up blowing up on TikTok in the form of dances and challenges, but a lot of people might find this particular trend especially nostalgic.
This is because the soundtrack of the latest viral TikTok dance is actually a remix of Natasha Bedingfield’s 2004 hit, ‘The Unwritten’.
The cheesy, uplifting pop hit was a staple in everyone’s lives growing up in the early 2000s, and it looks like TikTokers are paying homage to the track in the best way they know how.
With the song being given a 2021 remix, the sound, which is called ‘Esco Like Yhop ft. Shawn P’, was uploaded by TikTok user Esco Up, has featured in over 500k TikTok videos to date.
The dance swept the app throughout March, but really started to blow up when big names like Noah Beck, the D’Amelio sisters and Gordon Ramsey joined in on the trend, with their videos amassing 16.5 and 42.1 million views respectively.
How do you do the ‘Natasha Bedingfield Dance’?
While TikTok user Esco Up, who uploaded the remix, was the first TikToker to dance to this version of the song, a lot of TikTokers are following the dance routine formulated by TikTok dance troupe ‘gleefuljhits’.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
In their version of the dance, which has amassed 21.3 million views, people danced across the screen in a single-file line while swinging their arms before backing up and dancing across the screen for a second time, this time with their underwear showing. The dance routine has since been referred to as the ‘Natasha Bedingfield Dance’.
Natasha Bedingfield responds to the trend
Now that she has a dance named after her, Bedingfield was quick to respond by duetting with the masked dance troupe, trying out the popular dance for herself in a video that, to date, has amassed 3.7 million views. Praising ‘gleefuljhits’ on TikTok, she said to them that she “love love loves the dance you did!”
Reposting the TikTok onto Instagram, Bedingfield expanded on how much the dance trend needed to her. “The essence of Unwritten is about how wonderful, unexpected things can happen at any moment, and these TikTok dances I keep seeing recently couldn’t be more wonderful and unexpected,” she said in the Instagram caption.
Tagging the original song’s co-writers, Danielle Brisbois and Wayne Rodrigez, she asked: “Did you ever picture this scene the day we wrote this?”
“Thanks to all for this beautiful surprise. It’s all unwritten.”