In my last job, my colleagues and I used to watch YouTube videos in order to distract us or simply to waste our time (just like it commonly happens in any other workplace nowadays).
One day one of them told me “you have to see this video, it is a song about Israel, a message of love from Latin America to our brothers in Israel”. That sentence got me a little confused, and not interested at all; but well, it was our lunch break and we had seen enough cute kitten videos.
When I first saw it, I could not believe my eyes. The song is called “En tus tierras bailaré” (I will dance in your land), which describe the singers’ wishes to go to Israel, to dance in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, to find an Israeli boyfriend, and to strengthen the relationships between Israel and Latin America.
The video starts with the male singer watching some random interviews of people talking about the violence in Israel. After that, he shouts, “No way, It cannot be! No!” The rest of the video is constituted by bizarre settings and backgrounds while the singers talk about the wonders of Israel.
Now, after more than a million views, these individuals are three of the most famous YouTube singers in Latin America.
La Tigresa del Oriente (The Tigress from East): She is a 65 year old Peruvian woman who dresses and acts like a tiger and claims that Lady Gaga stole her style. She used to be a make up artist for a local channel in Peru until she decided to post videos in YouTube in order to accomplish her dream of becoming a singer. Her first song is called “Un Nuevo Amanecer” (a new break of dawn).
Delfín hasta el fin (Dolphin until the end): He is from Ecuador and his most famous video is called “Torres Gemelas” (Twin Towers), where he talks about the love of her life being trapped in the Twin Towers during 11/09. After seeing the news in the television (just like he does in the Israel video), he shouts the now famous phrase among Latin YouTube viewers “¡NO PUEDE SER!” (No way! It can’t be!).
Wendy Sulca: She is from Peru and is the youngest of them. She started her YouTube music career when she was a girl. Her most famous song is “La Tetita” (the boobie) where she talks about wanting her mother’s breast in order to be fed. The video shows Wendy’s cuddly toys, mothers feeding their babies (including a pig and her piglets) and men trying to grab a woman’s breast.
When I first saw these videos I could not stop laughing, and I must confess that I saw them several times. But after a while, I really started to worry about the user-generated content that is produced in Latin America and that is becoming famous through YouTube.
Why do they sing a song for Israel? Are they familiar with the politic conflicts in that country? Why does Wendy Sulca wants to find an Israeli boyfriend? Why do they sing in a zoo with monkeys, or in a park with camels and llamas? Why do they insert images of an aquarium, of random people or of places that are maybe not even located in Israel? Why does this video has more than 1,500,000 views and their individual videos between 3 and 5 millions? Why is this song played in several discoteques and bars across Latin America? Why do they have fans and followers? WHY?!?!!!
Now, after reading Keen’s (2007) comparison between the infinite monkey theorem from T.H. Huxley and today’s technology among amateurs, everything makes sense. I can see them as “dancing stuffed monkeys” that are also “making monkeys out of us” (Keen, 2007:p.5).
REFERENCES
Keen, A. (2007). The Cult of the Amateur. New York: Doubleday, pp.1-9
WEBSITES
Tigresa del Oriente YouTube Channel
Wendy Sulca YouTube Channel
Delfin hasta el Fin Website
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