About

Run Me Like A River Dance refers to series of TikTok videos in which TikTokers typically dance sensually with a chair to the 2016 song "River" by Bishop Briggs. The dances, which began trending on TikTok in 2019, sparked parody videos on the platform.

Origin

On June 17th, 2019, TikToker @lidiasabini uploaded he first known TikTok Run Me Like a River Dance video to the 2016 song "River" by Bishop Briggs^[1] and received over 728,100 likes in a year (shown below).

Precursor

Prior to the TikTok Run Me Like a River Dance trend, various dance studios uploaded chair dances to the song on YouTube. For example, on January 13th, 2018, Red Rose Lady Studio uploaded "Chair dance / strip plastic – Bishop River" which garnered over 3.3 views in two years (shown below).

Spread

On July 25th, 2019, TikToker @joealbanese uploaded a parody dance video that received over 2.9 million likes in nine months (shown below, left). On September 10th, television host and TikToker Howie Mandel uploaded his own parody which gained over 1.1 million likes in seven months (shown below, right).

Older Woman Dancing On The Bed

On April 5th, 2020, TikToker @nataliechalwell used the sound clip "River – Bishop Briggs" in a video of herself sensually dancing on a bed (shown below, left). The video gained over 954,900 likes in 10 days. Due to the TikToker's age, many other TikTokers dueted the video with their reactions. On April 11th, TikToker @jakeypoov pretended @natalieshalwell was his mother (shown below, center). The video received over 204,000 likes in four days. The next day, TikToker @zachjustice uploaded a duet in which he pretends that @nataliechalwell is his teacher (shown below, right). The video accumulated over 118,100 likes in three days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References