New York, NY (Top40 Charts) R&B singer Joji (full name: George Miller) scores his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated March 30), as his single "SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK" debuts at No. 96. The track appears on his debut LPBALLADS 1, which launched at No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and No. 3 on the all-genre Billboard 200 dated Nov. 10, 2018.
"DANCING" has been building since it debuted on the Hot R&B Songs and Hot R&B R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts on Sept. 29; this week, it matches its No. 7 peak on the former and reaches a new No. 39 high on the latter. The single, which Joji produced with Chairlift's Patrick Wimberly, debuts on the Hot 100 with 10 million U.S. streams (up 7 percent) and 1,000 downloads sold (up 12 percent) in the tracking week, according to Nielsen Music. Aiding its profile: TikTok users incorporating the song in the viral Microwave Challenge, in which people film themselves slowly spinning on the floor, as if on an invisible plate, ideally timing their rotation's end to the song's "ding" sound effect. The song's official video has logged over 52 million global views on YouTube since its Sept. 12 premiere.
In just a matter of weeks, the viral Microwave Challenge has taken over TikTok and spread to other major social media platforms across the Internet. The challenge involves a participant spinning mysteriously on the floor like reheated food in a microwave to Japanese singer Joji's hit song "SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK". People are achieving this effect in different and inventive ways that appear to defy physics. There is curiosity as to what exactly inspired this viral trend, which began to appear on TikTok in February 2019. Some Twitter users are pointing to K-Pop mega boy band BTS as the creators of the challenge while others claim that other K-Pop supergroup EXO were the originators. J-hope and Jungkook, members of the massive K-pop group BTS, can be seen performing a very similar in a dance studio video. BTS has a friendly relationship with Joji and have promoted his music on several occasions. Other fans credit another huge group, EXO, who performed the move in a different choreography video.
So far, the #microwavechallenge has garnered over 600 million views on TikTok alone and inspired 1.5 million unique creations and rapidly climbing. The challenge is now making headlines across press, even being featured on ABC's LIVE with Kelly and Ryan.
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