Yerushalayim

About

Yerushalayim is the title of an Orthodox Jewish pop song performed by the Miami Boys Choir that went viral in the late summer of 2022. After the choir's TikTok account posted a snippet of the track in order to highlight four soloists, it became popularized on other platforms as people discussed it or used it as backing music in parody videos.

Origin

"Yerushalayim" was released by the Miami Boys Choir, an Orthodox Jewish boys' choir, in 2007 on the album Moshiach.^[1] In 2008, the group released a concert DVD titled Yavo,^[2] featuring them performing "Yerushalayim" (performance shown below).

On August 16th, 2022, the group's TikTok account^[3] uploaded a video highlighting four soloists in the concert video. On August 21st, they reposted the video,^[4] and this upload went viral, gaining over 2.4 million views in one month (shown below).

Spread

On September 6th, 2022, Twitter user @eclectichams^[5] reposted the video to Twitter, helping it go viral there. The tweet gained over 5,300 retweets and 49,000 likes in two weeks (shown below). On September 10th, the group posted the full song to YouTube.^[6]

K-pop is over. We're listening to Orthodox Pop from now on. pic.twitter.com/U3hprBon8i

— Microplastics Enjoyer (@EclecticHams) September 6, 2022

While many commenters expressed surprise at the song's quality and the performance's soloists, some joked the song sounded similar to an anime opening. For example, on September 9th, Twitter user @ImEricSchneider^[7] commented it felt like it could transition into the Neon Genesis Evangelion opening theme (shown below, left). On September 8th, TikToker @hyehadttyutyhyyw then posted a video with the song playing over the opening animation for Evangelion (shown below, right).

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7141107297383796014

As the video spread, several of the boys featured in the video posted covers and videos celebrating their time in the choir. For example, soloist David Herskowitz, known as Davidhersko on TikTok, posted himself lip-syncing with the video, gaining over 159,000 likes in one day (shown below, top). C. and A. Abramowitz, brothers now part of the acapella group The Maccabeats, posted a video of the group covering the track (shown below, bottom).

Once a Miami Boy, always a Miami Boy https://t.co/1uN3fuBylU pic.twitter.com/LckXBFsJmo

— Maccabeats (@Maccabeats) September 12, 2022

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References