There’s no reason you can’t become a YouTube dance sensation when you’re 86 years old.
And that’s just what one woman did after being filmed dancing along to the 2015 hit “Watch Me” by rapper Silentó in the middle of her kitchen.
The original video for the song is one of YouTube’s most popular videos of all time – it’s the 55th most popular, to be exact, with over 1.6 BILLION views! But it’s far more popular for the dance moves it popularized than its lyrics or music.
While grandma will have to settle for 1.8 million views on her own video, it’s a pretty good showing considering she doesn’t have quite the popping moves that the original dancers do.
But she’s close!
To be fair, neither the “Whip” nor the “Nae Nae” is a terribly complicated dance move, though some have added their own style in subsequent years.
According to the website Know Your Meme, the “Whip” is a choreographed dance that involves raising a knee, dropping it, and making a car-driving gesture with the opposite-side arm.
We think grandma’s got it down pretty well, especially the wheel-turning motion.
The Nae Nae, on the other hand, “is a choreographed dance stylized by holding one arm in the air and one arm by your side as you rock back and forth on slightly bent knees.”
Both moves became popular on Vine a few years before the music video for the song came out, so they’ve been around for a while. Still, Silentó brought them to the masses, despite his song being called “One of the most annoying things to ever exist” by Complex Magazine.
Ouch.
But it did manage to spawn a legion of grandmas recording themselves for YouTube posterity!
Mary Thompson, 80, and Eleanor Fredriksen, 83, busted some moves – including the Stanky Legg and Superman – at the Somerby of Peachtree City Retirement Community in Georgia.
Recorded by the home’s lifestyle director, their video has been viewed tens of millions of times on Facebook!
Apparently, this is the official song of grandmas everywhere!
We’re not sure that’s what Silentó had in mind, but that’s ok.
While not an octogenarian, this 60-year-old Florida grandmother made the news back in 2016 after filming the dance along with the hospital staff that helped her get through a double lung transplant!
She loved dancing, but had been on an oxygen tank for a decade and was thrilled to return to her favorite activity once again.
There’s clearly more than one grandma out there with smooth moves.
And there are plenty of mental and physical benefits to dancing in old age (or any age for that matter), so while you don’t need to make a video in the hopes of going viral, these women prove that you can’t use your age as an excuse not to get your groove on!
Scroll down below to see the original viral video of an 86-year-old woman doing the Whip and Nae Nae in her kitchen.
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