Big Freedia’s remix of classic children’s song ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ goes viral

Videos of parents dancing with their children to a remixed version of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” have flooded social media, thanks to a popular children’s educational YouTube series started by a Black family. The song, now a viral sensation, has also become an entertaining and fun dancing experience for both children and adults.

The “Row Row Row Your Boat Remix” featuring Big Freedia comes from the animated children’s YouTube channel Gracie’s Corner. Since the song’s release last month, it has garnered over 6 million views on YouTube and 2 million views on TikTok, with parents dancing with their children to the catchy melody.

A typical song on Gracie’s Corner, starring 10-year-old Graceyn, combines educational songs or nursery rhymes with modern beats from multiple genres, including hip-hop and Afrobeats, displayed in the channel’s “ABC Song.” In the videos, Gracie, a Black girl with natural hair, often sings with members of her family and her friends of different races.

In this remix, though, Gracie is accompanied by Big Freedia, known as the queen of bounce music, a unique style of hip-hop from New Orleans. She adds her signature elements to this viral hit, with fast tempo beats and lines like “You better row!”

Big Freedia collaborated with Gracie’s Corner because of her inclination to “do anything for the kids,” she said. It’s also meaningful, she added, because bounce music is “part of our culture” and empowers people to express themselves “musically and on the dance floor.”

“It’s just important for me to be a part of it because it helps keep on pushing the culture and pushing to make our kids know what’s going on and what’s happening out there in the world,” Big Freedia said. “And you know, what’s better than nursery rhymes to get the kids’ attention?”

Big Freedia said that she was also surprised by the amount of traction the song has gotten, and that she has received several messages from parents saying how much they love the song, along with videos of their children dancing to it. Others have expressed their love for the song by posting comments under the TikTok video, including “WE LOVE IT! THANK YOU GRACIE AND BIG FREEDIA,” along with one person who asked how many parents are “about to have dance battles with their kids?”

“It is just so cute to see all the different children and their reactions,” said Big Freedia, who is currently working on a children’s album and book. “It makes me very happy.”

Javoris Hollingsworth, the executive producer and founder of Gracie’s Corner (and also Graceyn’s dad), had been wanting to create a song for the channel using bounce music. He and his wife, Arlene Gordon-Hollingsworth, both enjoyed listening to bounce as students at Louisiana State University in the mid to late 2000s.

Hollingsworth collaborates with other producers to make beats, and also writes both song lyrics and the script for the series in his home studio.

The family launched Gracie’s Corner in 2020 after noticing a lack of diversity in the children’s entertainment space and saw it as an opportunity to “create our own content that intentionally put children of color to the forefront,” Hollingsworth said. Producing the show also granted Graceyn the YouTube channel she always wanted.

“My favorite part is that I get to create [with] my dad,” Graceyn said.

Gordon-Hollingsworth said that in creating the songs, “there’s a lot of pieces that she’ll add that I love, like little notes and little keys and little phrases.”

After releasing Gracie’s new song with Big Freedia, the family received numerous emails and positive comments from their supporters about how much they enjoyed the song.

“Our supporters are everything, and they always come through,” said Gordon-Hollingsworth, an assistant professor of clinical psychology at Texas Southern University, “and this is just another example of how important our supporters are.”

An idea that started as a side hobby has grown tremendously in popularity over the past few years, with 2.08 million YouTube subscribers and over 160,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Other classics remade by Gracie’s Corner include the “Apples and Bananas Song,” “Five Little Pandas Jumping on the Bed,” and the “Phonics Song,” which received 90 million views on YouTube.

One of the goals of the channel, Javoris Hollingsworth said, is to expose children of color to multiple genres of music, especially those where Black people have been influential.

He also said the channel has been successful in bringing parents and children together.

“With most children programming, you may turn it on for your kid and then you walk off and you go wash the dishes, clean, do something else,” he added. “But with what we’re doing, we are doing it in such a way where parents are actually tuning in and watching with their children.”

The show also helps children of color feel seen, respected and loved by providing positive affirmations and highlighting certain genres and cities, because “we want our kids to feel special because they are special,” Javoris Hollingsworth said. In one nursery rhyme video called “I Love My Hair,” which has 20 million views, Gracie expresses her admiration for her own natural hair.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s up or if it’s down,” she sings as she dances next to two other Black children, “proud of my hair cause it is my crown.” In another song called “Promise to Love Myself,” Gracie sings about self-love and not comparing herself to others.

Graceyn said she wants to continue voice acting when she grows up. But for now she’s collaborating with Snoop Dogg’s Doggyland for a song called “Girl Power,” which was released in May and said she hopes to work with some of her favorite Black artists on her YouTube series, including Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell Williams, Beyoncé and Blue Ivy.

Most importantly, Graceyn wants Gracie’s Corner to have a lasting impact on viewers.

“I hope it makes children want to be themselves and share their uniqueness, and also, like, show their personality, and like, the kind of talent they have,” she said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com