It's Already the Most Played Song in the World – With the Spotify Release Yet To Come

8 Billion Plays In Three Months on YouTube – What Is It Worth?

It's already the most played song in the world this year, with 8 billion plays on YouTube. Rednex & Razi are now ready for release on Spotify on May 24th.

The success is as mind-blowing as the title is awkward – Gegagedigedagedago. This mega-event also started out with the imagery of a singing chicken nugget, as if that helps.

In 2024, 570 million unique viewers played this song, compared to a total of 615 million Spotify users.

The song is based on Rednex's Cotton Eye Joe and was first made viral on TikTok by the Danish singer Razi Irawani. But it was on YouTube that it exploded. There, the world's most successful song of the Internet era, Luis Fonsi's Despacito, needed 78 months to reach 8.2 billion views. It took Gegagedigedagedago only three months. The rate is 26 times faster.

"The numbers are staggering and difficult to comprehend", said Pat Reiniz, Rednex's co-founder and the producer of Cotton Eye Joe.” But the entertainment industry needs to wake up. This success goes way beyond common terms like 'viral' or 'meme'. This is a massive digital movement, which includes thousands of video creators with various themes. It is the first mega-event of many to come."

The song is currently holding a pace of 3 billion views per month. If this goes on for another four months, it is likely to become the most consumed entertainment content in the history of mankind.

Gegagedigedagedago has been viewed by 16% of all YouTube users and 7% of the world population. 8.2 billion exceeds the number of humans on the planet. The song has twice as many plays as the No.1 all-time song on Spotify, Blinding Lights by The Weekend.

The song has excelled with no marketing effort or media exposure. Compare this to the 90s when it was literally impossible to get a hit without both. This level of success is so new there is not even a chart created for it yet.

"Every view is a real human being somewhere on the planet, with a pair of ears who makes a conscious choice to connect with a song", said Pat Reiniz. "You should not be quick to dismiss the insane numbers that shorter videos can accumulate compared to full songs. It is even worth asking whether the concept of the full song is threatened. Whatever happens, this signifies a big change. Adjustments will be needed."

Will the Spotify release of Gegagedigedagedago become a massive hit, a disappointing failure, or a mediocrity? Whatever the result, it will probably lead to more questions than answers.

Spotify link – https://open.spotify.com/album/7ppANxRYsiauednEVILNlz

Statistics video: 

https://youtube.com/shorts/LRV3MPkTw4c

Press mentions:

“Smashes YouTube record” - NME
https://www.nme.com/news/music/rednexs-cotton-eye-joe-smashes-youtube-record-3749139

“has led the band to pulverise a YouTube record.” – euronews
https://www.euronews.com/culture/2024/04/23/how-did-90s-eurodance-swedish-band-rednex-become-the-most-played-artist-in-the-world

“breaks YouTube world record, beating Adele” - Rolling Stone
https://www.rollingstone.de/cotton-eye-joe-von-rednex-bricht-youtube-weltrekord-und-schlaegt-adele-2716529/

“—an absolutely massive achievement. (...) 13 times more than the most streamed song on Spotify” - the.music.com.au
https://themusic.com.au/news/cotton-eye-joe-smashes-youtube-record-for-rednex/B961GxodHB8/19-04-24

“has taken over social media with a view count 28 times higher than the top music video” - Music-News.com
https://www.music-news.com/news/UK/172879/Cotton-Eye-Joe-helps-Rednex-smash-YouTube-record

Press release RednexMusic –
https://rednexmusic.com/press-release-gegagedigedagedago/
Rednex Photos & Documents –
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18WOQ4DnjaPdKWGmK-G8UUTUNRK52DWKW