Numa Numa

Numa Numa

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Updated Feb 08, 2019 at 09:07AM EST by Don.

Added Mar 30, 2009 at 08:00PM EDT by Todd Persen.

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About

Numa Numa is a video created by New Jersey amateur videographer Gary Brolsma, in which he performs a lip dub of the song "Dragostea din tei"[1] by the Moldovan pop group O-Zone. Since its online debut on Newgrounds in December of 2004, the video has gained significant fame both online and offline for its parodies and re-enactment videos.

Origin

Broslma uploaded a lib dub video of the song "Dragostea din tei" titled "Numa Numa Dance" to the flash animation site Newgrounds[3] on December 6th, 2004, receiving over 15.7 million views and 2,200 pages of comments over the next eight years. On August 14th, 2006, YouTuber xloserkidx uploaded a mirror of the video, which has accrued over 49 million views as of December 6th, 2012.



Dragostea din Tei

"Dragostea din tei" (roughly translated as "Love in the Linden Tree") is a 2003 dance single by the Moldovan pop trio O-Zone. Its nickname "Numa Numa" comes from the song's Romanian lyrics "nu mă, nu mă iei," which translates to "you don't want, don't want to take me."[2] Upon its release in Europe in 2004, the song topped the single charts of nearly a dozen European countries as well as Japan's Oricon album charts in 2005.



Dragostea din tei (Romanian)

Maia hii
Maia hoo
Maia haa
Maia haha (4)

Alo, salut
Sint eu, un haiduc
Si te rog iubirea
Mea primeste fericirea

Alo alo
Sint eu Picasso
Ti-am dat bip
Si simt voinic

Dar sa stii nu-ti cer nimic

Vrei sa pleci dar numa numa iei
Numa numa iei numa numa numa iei
Chipul tau si dragostea din tei
Mi-amintesc de ochii tai (2)

Te sum ce-ti spune
Ce simt acum
Alo iubirea mea
Sint eu fericirea

Alo alo sint iarasi eu Picasso
Ti-am dat bip
Si simt voinic
Dar sa stii nu-ti cer nimic

Vrei sa pleci dar numa numa iei
Numa numa iei numa numa numa iei
Chipul tau si dragostea din tei
Mi-amintesc de ochii tai (2)

Maia hii
Maia hoo

Maia haa
Maia haha (4)

Vrei sa pleci dar numa numa iei
Numa numa iei numa numa numa iei
Chipul tau si dragostea din tei
Mi-amintesc de ochii tai (2)

Dragostea din tei (English translation)

Maia hii
Maia hoo

Maia haa
Maia haha (4)

Hello, greetings
It's me, a rogue
And please love
My darling

Hello Hello
It's me, Picasso
I gave you a beep
And feel confident
But know I cannot expect anything

You want to go so take me now
Take me now take me now me now
Your image and love in the linden
The look of your eyes (2)

I sum up what I am saying
How I feel now
Hello, my love
It's me darling

Hello hello, it's me again, Picasso
I gave you a beep
And feel confident
But know I cannot expect anything

You want to go so take me now
Take me now take me now me now
Your image and love in the linden
The look of your eyes (2)

Maia hii
Maia hoo

Maia haa
Maia haha (4)

You want to go so take me now
Take me now take me now me now
Your image and love in the linden
The look of your eyes (2)

Spread

On February 23rd, 2005, the flash video site Jeff is Cool[17] uploaded a flash embed of Brolsma's video. On February 25th, the first Urban Dictionary[19] entry for "numa numa" was created by user ShortbusGus, defining the term as a "repetitive fad" on Newgrounds. On February 26th, Free Republic Forums[16] member zeugma linked the NewGrounds video in a thread about the song Mahna Mahna. The same day, The New York Times[6] published an article titled "Internet Fame is Cruel Mistress for a Dancer of the Numa Numa," which included an interview with Brolsma, members of his family and Newgrounds creator Tom Fulp. In the interview, Brolsma revealed that he discovered the song in a Japanese flash animation with anime cats (shown below).



On August 24th, 2006, Brolsma created the NewNuma[12] YouTube channel, which receives 28,880 views a day as of December 2012. On September 9th, Gary released a follow up video titled "New Numa: The Return of Gary Brolsma",[9] which received over 16 million views over the next six years (shown below, left). On November 27th, the BBC[21] published an article reporting that Brolsma's video was the second most viral video in the world with 700 million views, falling 200 million views behind the Star Wars Kid. On November 14th, 2007, Gary returned to the casual webcam format with a video titled “Numa Three – Crazy Loop!” (shown below, right), which received over 1.2 million views within the next five years.



In March of 2009, Gary collaborated with Geico Insurance to make a fourth Numa video (shown below, bottom, left). In late 2008, “Dragostea din tei” was used as the main sample in the hit single “Live Your Life” by T.I. and Rihanna (shown below, bottom, right), which topped the Billboard Hot 100 on November 8th, 2008.



Notable Examples

Parodies and remixes of the original Numa Numa videos began appearing on YouTube in 2006.

Search Interest

Search query volume for the keywords "Numa Numa" began rising in December of 2004 when Brolsma uploaded his video to Newgrounds and peaked in April 2005, a few months after the major news coverage took place.

Numa Numa 10th's Anniversary

On December 6 ,2014 Gary Brolsma uploaded a new video video title "Numa Numa 10-Year Reunion" honoring the video's 10th anniversary where he can be seen dancing to various music. On the same day Newgrounds posted a picture on it's front page honoring the video's anniversary.

External References

[1] YouTube – Dragostea din tei

[2] Wikipedia – Numa Numa

[3] Newgrounds – Numa Numa Dance

[4] YouTube – Numa Numa

[5] YouTube – Search for "numa numa"

[6] New York Times – Internet Fame Is Cruel Mistress for a Dancer of the Numa Numa (February 26th, 2005)

[7] TODAY – You go, Gary! 'Numa' takes Web by storm (February 17th, 2005)

[8] Newgrounds Forums – Numa Numa Dance On Bestweekever (February 11th, 2005)

[9] YouTube – New Numa – The Return of Gary Brolsma!

[10] YouTube – Numa Three: Crazy Loop!

[11] YouTube – Numa Numa Guy with Gecko, Somebody's Watching Me

[12] YouTube – NewNuma's channel

[13] Numa Network – Home

[14] Wikipedia – Gary Brolsma

[15] YouTube – Live Your Life

[16] Free Republic – Ma na ma na

[17] Jeff Is Cool – Numa Numa

[18] I Am Bored – Japanese Version of Numa Numa

[19] Urban Dictionary – Numa Numa

[20] StupidVideos – Numa Numa Lamb Chop

[21] BBC – Star Wars Kid is Top Viral Video

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