Seems the 15 minutes of fame for this New Jersey fellow expired last season when every kid on the planet seemed to be fist-pumping to the original Numa Numa sing-along-n-boogie Romanian craze…but he’s baaaack, with Numa Numa2 and he’s gone to the big leagues.
At this point he may even have an agent & handlers…
Every tween that’s done the hairbrush hit parade, singing unabashedly into their bedroom mirror is now a marketing opportunity, I suppose.
Kids found him hilarious and that’s the e-ticket for viral.
He’s taken his humble, home grown beginnings and ‘aw shucks, I didn’t mean for it to get that big I’d better shut down the server’ type of fame and whammo…
Numa guy has now got a snazzy, sophisticated website offering ringtones, iTunes downloads, chat capabilities and a $45,000 New Numa contest for kids to make their own video to the tune! Uh, weren’t kids doing that for free?
There’s already backlash in the forums and we all know kids can be brutal. Surf the subculture where some of the REAL talent exists with gamers, anime artists and avatar affecionados and you’ll find what teen techies and others in the know are saying.
The zeitgeist is trackable and unspoofable when you hold a glass up to the wall of youth culture instead of getting caught up in media & marketing hype. You just have to know where to look.
Back story for those tucked into a turtle shell?
Singing your heart out went viral in a big way when this kid flipped on his webcam and hit the internet with abandon all of last year. (to be exact, it posted on 12/6/04, the brushfire took off in ’05, and as of today in ’06 the original site counts almost 14 million views)
Some adults were still trying to figure out the Numa phenom as kids around the globe passed the youtube-style clip of the ‘energetic chubby guy’ that won kids’ hearts as he became the poster boy for the ‘every teen does this’ set.
The Numa guy quickly elevated to pop icon status, with teens and bands producing knock-offs in most every language, dance style, and broom closet of a home studio…from India to Iceland.
But now…well…let’s get real…There’s no such thing as ‘unplanned fame’ when marketers are involved.
He’s got partners, and if someone’s coughing up $45K, my hunch is just like last round, these sponsors have gotten ahold of this 20 year old to surf the wave of his brand building.
Oh, btw, ‘Numa guy’ DOES have a name, it’s Gary Brolsma. (Kimmel, Conan, Colbert, Jay & crew will default to just Numa guy, if he resurrects again, I’m guessing) I can almost visualize the spotlight, curtain, and the green room guy, “Gary, baby, you’ll need to lose a few, get makeup in here and do some magic; give us some shakin,’ make it outrageous, take it over the top…”
Of course, the minute they do that, kids will have already moved on. They’re smart like that. Internet fame is fickle and random.
And what about the original O-zone, “Dragostea Din Tei” and Dan Balen?
Who? What? (see what I mean?)
Dan is the actual writer/producer of ‘the Numa song’ which became the biggest hit in Europe (’04) Japan (’05) and vaulted to #1 in 32 countries, selling over 12,000,000 units worldwide. Seems Dan’s also busy trying to get his new band hooked into the MySpace music sweet spot…but alas, he’ll always be in the shadows of ‘the Numa guy.’
It MUST sting watching dozens of bands all over the world create their own unique version of your tune, while some heavy-set lip-syncher gets famous for it. Maybe not, I dunno.
But commercialism is EVERYwhere.
You can get your Numa Numa gear at Café Press…But hey, Shaping Youth shirts are there too…(it’s the cheapest way we can produce uniforms for volunteers!) But the chances of a Numa-like viral retail blitz of those wanting to “wear a tee, support our blog” are slim and would no doubt be an ‘unplanned hit.’
Riiight. Like that’s gonna happen. Hmn. Maybe we should PURPOSELY produce a bunch of catchy tee slogans for those concerned with media & marketing’s impact on kids and see if they go viral???
Hey, Gary…Mr. Numa guy, can we link to your site? 😉
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