'Numa Numa' kid and Rihanna and T.I.'s hyper-viral new song

Rihanna at the 2008 VMAs. (Photo: WireImage)

Those who watched the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday might have done a double take when a figure rose from the stage floor, singing a familiar "mai ai hee" harmony — the same used in the wildly popular "Numa Numa" Internet video.

But the sunglasses-wearing musician belting out the tune amidst bright lights, smoke and applause wasn't the pudgy star of the popular YouTube video or the frontman who penned the Romanian pop song. It was someone with a video that trumps the popularity of even "Numa Numa" itself, with the No. 5 all-time most-viewed spot on YouTube: pop superstar Rihanna.

The "Umbrella" singer collaborated with rapper T.I. on "Live Your Life," the second single from his album "Paper Trail," which hits stores at the end of the month. The track opens and closes with a sample from the original 2004 European chart-topper "Dragostea din tei," the catchy tune many in the United States call the "Numa Numa" song.

For Dan Bălan, songwriter and O-Zone lead singer, hearing a cover of the song is nothing new. Since the song first hit the charts in 2004, Bălan has greenlighted numerous other bands' takes on "Dragostea din tei" — meaning "love of the lime tree" — in about a dozen languages. "There were five versions of the same song in the top 20" on the French music charts concurrently, Bălan said. "Never in the history of music has something like that happened."

Yet the single never made a successful transition stateside, seeing very limited radio play and lukewarm sales. Bălan blames Ultra Records, the independent electronic dance label O-Zone signed to for U.S. distribution. "The record label didn't do anything," he said. "They couldn't really push it."

Gary Brolsma, the "Numa Numa" guy. (Photo: Mark Milian / Los Angeles Times)

But the song found its American audience in December 2004 when Gary Brolsma, a suburban kid just out of high school, posted a video of him dancing to the song on Newgrounds. The clip has since received more than 12 million hits on the user-submitted videos and games site. And another 19 million on YouTube. "The success of my song is because of Gary," Bălan said.

Still, Bălan sees it more as a missed opportunity than a triumph. "The moment when Gary came with this phenomenon on the Internet, there was a time to break" into the American mainstream, he said. "Now everyone is thinking about viral marketing."

Of course, "marketing" was the last thing on Brolsma's mind when he plugged in his Web-cam and began filming himself pumping fists to the track — one he, himself, happened upon thanks to another online video. "I was just fooling around in my room," he said. "It was just a random song I found, and I thought it would be really funny."

In the four years when many of his Saddle Brook, N.J., classmates were away at college, Brolsma, 22, has been making cameos on music videos for Weezer and the Barenaked Ladies and on TV shows like the War at Home and South Park.

Brolsma, a big fan of the foul-mouthed cartoon, was shocked when he saw himself caricatured on an episode of South Park, and his avatar subsequently mauled by Sneezing Panda's mother. Despite the writers not approaching him beforehand about the characteristically offensive portrayal, Brolsma loved the episode. "That was awesome," he said.

He occasionally gets recognized at movie theaters, but despite all the exposure, Brolsma isn't hounded when he walks down the street. "A lot of people still don't think I'm American," he said. "They think I'm actually singing it."

So, no, he isn't singing in the "Numa" video, but he is the lead vocalist for a solo project and a young rock band, called Nonetheless, which is preparing to record a studio record. "I am in a band, and ironically I am the singer," Brolsma said.

Bălan and his now defunct European pop band have never toured in the United States, but he's working on an album in New York, so maybe we'll see him onstage soon. Perhaps Brolsma and his garage rockers will join him. "Maybe we would do something for fun," Bălan said.

— Mark Milian

Comments

[kiarra bankston]

i did not like this song they could have done better