Dance Monkey
"Dance Monkey" is a song by Australian singer Tones and I, released on 10 May 2019 as the second single from Tones and I's debut EP, The Kids Are Coming. The song was produced and mixed by Konstantin Kersting.
"Dance Monkey" topped the official singles charts in over 38 countries and peaked within the top ten of many others, including the United States. The song broke the record for the most weeks at number one on the Australian singles chart at 24 non-consecutive weeks. It also broke the record for the most weeks spent at the top of the UK Singles Chart by a female artist with 11 weeks at the top. When it hit number four in the US, it became the first top-five hit solely written by a woman in over eight years. On Spotify, as of March 2024, the song is the most streamed by a female artist and the thirteenth-most overall, with over 3 billion streams. The song was also the first song by a female artist to reach 3 billion streams.
The song has received a number of awards. It won Best Pop Release at the ARIA Music Awards of 2019, Song of the Year at the APRA Music Awards of 2020 and Independent Song of the Year at the AIR Awards of 2020. It was also the Grand Prize winner of the 2019 International Songwriting Competition.
Lyrics
When interviewed by DJ Smallzy in July 2019 on Australian radio station Nova FM, Tones explained that Dance Monkey's lyrics are about the relationship she had with her audience when she was busking on the streets of Australia:"I wrote this song when I was busking, and about the pressure that I felt to always be entertaining people on the street. And if they didn't like it, when they looked at their phones they could just click something else;... we are all so used to being entertained at the click of a button."
"So when you're on the street,.. to command attention, people would be like: 'again! again!'.. 'more! more!'.. or they would just leave. So if you replace : 'dance for me, dance for me' with 'sing for me, sing for me,' it's pretty literal," she said.
Music video
Liam Kelly and Nick Kozakis directed the music video, which was released on 24 June 2019, produced by Visible Studios. It follows the character "Mr. Tones", an elderly man who sneaks out of a care home with his friends so they can go to a golf course and have a dance party with other senior citizens.Due to the overcast weather on the day of filming, every shot of the music video had its sky replaced digitally. In 2020, it was added to APRA billion streams list. As of June 2024, the video has over 2.13 billion views on YouTube. The music video was filmed at Eynesbury Golf Club, Victoria, Australia.
Commercial performance
Upon reaching its tenth week at the top of the Australian Singles Chart, "Dance Monkey" broke the record for the most weeks at number one on the chart by an Australian artist. In November 2019, during its sixteenth week at number one, it broke the record for the most weeks at number one in Australia's ARIA chart history, previously held by Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You". "Dance Monkey" also holds the record for the longest time at number one across Australian singles charts, with 24 weeks.In the United Kingdom, "Dance Monkey" broke the record for the most weeks spent at the top of the UK Singles Chart by a female artist when it remained at the top of the chart for an eleventh week. The previous record of ten weeks was held jointly by Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" in 1992–1993 and "Umbrella" by Rihanna and Jay-Z in 2007.
"Dance Monkey" was the sixth highest ranked global digital single of 2019 according to IFPI, moving 11.4 million converted units. In November 2020, "Dance Monkey" was declared the most Shazamed song of all time with 36.6 million searches. In December 2020, Dance Monkey became the third most-streamed song on Spotify with over 2.5 billion streams, making Tones the first female artist to do so.
Reception
A few listeners express displeasure of the song, with some even going as far to name it "the worst song of all time". Tones has even expressed that she "loathe that song a lot of the time. A lot of times I don't want to sing it."Live performances
Tones made her debut on US television on 18 November 2019 with a performance of the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. On 10 December 2019, Tones appeared as a guest performer again in the US on The Voice. The following week, "Dance Monkey" entered the US Billboard Hot 100 top ten for the first time at number nine, and later peaked at number four on the chart.Accolades
At the ARIA Music Awards of 2019, Tones and I was nominated for eight awards, winning four. Tones won ARIA Award for Best Female Artist and Breakthrough Artist while "Dance Monkey" won Best Pop Release and The Kids Are Coming EP won Best Independent Release. At the APRA Music Awards of 2020, "Dance Monkey" was nominated for Song of the Year, Most Performed Australian Work of the Year and Most Performed Pop Work of the Year, winning Song of the Year. At the AIR Awards of 2020, the song won Independent Song of the Year. In May 2020, "Dance Monkey" was announced as the Grand Prize winner of the 2019 International Songwriting Competition.Personnel
Credits adapted from Spotify.- Toni Watson – vocals, composer
- Konstantin Kersting – mixing, production
- Andrei Eremin – mastering
Charts
Weekly charts
| Chart | Peak position |
| Chart | Peak position |
| Belarus Airplay | 153 |
| Estonia Airplay | 180 |
| Kazakhstan Airplay | 189 |
| Romania Airplay | 88 |
| Ukraine Airplay | 119 |
Monthly charts
| Chart | Position |
| CIS Airplay | 2 |
| Russia Airplay | 5 |
| Ukraine Airplay | 1 |
| Chart | Position |
| CIS Airplay | 42 |
| Ukraine Airplay | 35 |
| Russia Airplay | 61 |
| Chart | Position |
| Moldova Airplay | 45 |
Year-end charts
| Chart | Position |
| Argentina Airplay | 2 |
| Australia | 4 |
| Austria | 3 |
| Belgium | 4 |
| Belgium | 4 |
| Canada | 1 |
| CIS Airplay | 15 |
| Denmark | 8 |
| France | 4 |
| Germany | 2 |
| Hungary | 1 |
| Hungary | 3 |
| Hungary | 3 |
| Hungary | 4 |
| Ireland | 5 |
| Italy | 17 |
| Mexico Airplay | 2 |
| Mexico Streaming | 2 |
| Netherlands | 77 |
| Netherlands | 3 |
| New Zealand | 5 |
| Poland | 48 |
| Romania | 18 |
| Russia Airplay | 30 |
| Spain | 5 |
| South Korea | 28 |
| Sweden | 5 |
| Switzerland | 2 |
| Ukraine Airplay | 2 |
| UK Singles | 2 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 14 |
| US Adult Top 40 | 33 |
| US Dance/Mix Show Airplay | 26 |
| US Mainstream Top 40 | 22 |
| US Hot Rock & Alternative Songs | 16 |
| Worldwide | 2 |
| Chart | Position |
| Australia | 37 |
| Austria | 62 |
| CIS Airplay | 63 |
| Denmark | 85 |
| France | 36 |
| Germany | 44 |
| Global 200 | 22 |
| Hungary | 39 |
| Poland | 89 |
| Portugal | 120 |
| Russia Airplay | 146 |
| South Korea | 82 |
| Spain | 94 |
| Sweden | 96 |
| Switzerland | 35 |
| UK Singles | 38 |
| Ukraine Airplay | 43 |
| Chart | Position |
| Australia | 60 |
| CIS Airplay | 139 |
| Global 200 | 53 |
| Ukraine Airplay | 89 |
| Chart | Position |
| Belarus Airplay | 186 |
| CIS Airplay | 183 |
| Romania Airplay | 174 |
| Ukraine Airplay | 159 |