Chipi Chipi Chapa Chapa / "Dubidubidu" — Split composition with dancing cat on left and girl in yellow pink on right with Dubidubidu lyrics.

Chipi Chipi Chapa Chapa / "Dubidubidu"

2003Viral song / animal dance videosemi-active

Published March 24, 2026

Also known as: Dubidubidu · チピチピチャパチャパ

"Chipi Chipi Chapa Chapa" is the catchy chorus from "Dubidubidu," a 2003 children's song by Chilean singer Christell that went massively viral in late 2023. The meme took off after a Boykisser animation set to the song spread across X and TikTok in October 2023, then exploded when users started pairing the chorus with looped videos of cats bobbing their heads. By January 2024, the two-decade-old track topped Spotify's viral chart in Japan and spread to multiple other countries3.

earworm memes tiktok sound trends animal memes delayed virality memes latin american memes

Overview

The meme centers on the infectious "Chipi chipi chapa chapa, dubi dubi daba daba" chorus from a Spanish-language children's song. The original track is an upbeat invitation to come over, play, and dance, performed by a child singer1. In meme form, it's almost always paired with looping animations or videos of animals, especially cats, swaying or bobbing in time with the beat. The nonsense syllables and simple, hypnotic melody make it perfect earworm material for short-form video platforms.

Origin & Background

Platform
Chilean TV (song), X/Twitter and TikTok (meme)
Key People
Christell, @Kuowonn, @mel0yyyy_02
Date
2003 (song), 2023 (meme)

"Dubidubidu" was first performed in 2003 by Christell, a Chilean child singer, on the television program *Rojo fama contra fama*3. The song was included on her debut album. According to Christell, the album's producer asked the composer to write a song about her inviting friends to her house in a toy car, and the composer built "Dubidubidu" around that concept3.

On September 23, 2010, Christell uploaded the song to YouTube, where it slowly accumulated views over the years, hitting around 372,000 by June 2018 and 2.8 million by July 20232. The original upload was later made private sometime in the second half of 2023. Meanwhile, on May 7, 2020, a YouTube user named Fleeting Hell posted just the audio, and that upload picked up over 2.1 million views over three years2.

The song's meme life began on October 27, 2023, when animator @Kuowonn posted a 10-second Boykisser animation set to the chorus on X (formerly Twitter). The clip racked up over 208,000 views, 1,400 reposts, and 6,200 likes within two months2.

How It Spread

The same day @Kuowonn posted the animation, TikTok user @awaken_fox reuploaded it to TikTok, where it pulled in over 1.8 million views and 176,000 likes2. On November 6, 2023, a YouTube account called [Rus]Boy_Kisser<3 reposted the video, getting over 307,000 views in a single month2.

By mid-November, the animation had spawned a wave of edits, re-animations, and remixes. On November 10, TikTok user @evelyngodofass posted a video of the animation set as a desktop wallpaper, scoring 982,000 views and 125,000 likes2. The next day, @idonotsmoke2938 posted a video of a plush rat dancing to the song with the caption "do you ever sit and then like: chipi chipi chapa chapa luvi luvi lava lava," which blew up to 2.1 million views2.

On November 13, @Kuowonn dropped a second Boykisser animation, earning another 131,000 views2. Animator Fazbears Times posted what appears to be the earliest re-animation, a Foxy version, to their Telegram channel on November 14, later including it in a YouTube meme compilation2.

The meme's biggest moment came in early December 2023, when users started combining the song with animal videos. On December 7, TikTok user @mel0yyyy_02 posted a looped video of a cat moving its head to the beat. It hit 15.7 million views and 2.2 million likes in just four days2. Another popular version by @dedo2566 featured a cat swaying along and pulled over 14 million views1. This cat-centric format became the dominant version of the meme, with users filming their own cats while moving their phones to match the rhythm1.

The song then crossed into Asia. On January 15, 2024, "Dubidubidu" reached the number one spot on Spotify's weekly viral chart in Japan, where it became known by its Japanese nickname チピチピチャパチャパ3. By February 2024, the track had also broken through in Germany, Finland, and South Korea3.

How to Use This Meme

The most common format involves filming a cat (or other pet) and syncing the video to the "Chipi chipi chapa chapa" chorus. Some creators move their phone while recording to make the animal appear to sway along. Others loop existing footage of animals moving rhythmically. The animation format is also popular: take a character (original, fandom, or otherwise) and animate them bobbing or dancing to the chorus, usually in a cute, looping style inspired by the original Boykisser animation.

Cultural Impact

What started as a niche animation meme crossed over into genuine music chart success. A children's song recorded two decades earlier in Chile suddenly topped viral charts in Japan and spread across multiple continents3. The song initially gained traction in the United States in late 2023 before spreading to Asia3. Christell's track found an entirely new global audience through short-form video, with the Japanese market showing particular enthusiasm for the cat meme format.

The meme also highlighted the unpredictable lifecycle of internet content. The song sat relatively dormant on YouTube for over a decade, slowly building views, before a 10-second furry animation kicked off a chain reaction that made it a worldwide earworm2.

Fun Facts

The song was originally written around a specific concept: Christell inviting her friends to her house in a toy car3.

"Dubidubidu" went from 372,000 YouTube views in 2018 to 2.8 million by mid-2023, all before the meme even started2.

The cat video by @mel0yyyy_02 averaged nearly 4 million views per day during its first four days2.

The song hit number one in Japan despite being in Spanish, showing how meme virality can bypass language barriers3.

Derivatives & Variations

Boykisser animations:

The original format by @Kuowonn, featuring the Boykisser character bobbing to the chorus, spawned numerous re-animations with other characters[2].

Foxy re-animation:

Fazbears Times created a Five Nights at Freddy's Foxy version, one of the earliest character swaps[2].

Cat dance videos:

The dominant derivative format, where real cats are filmed bobbing or swaying to the song, often with the phone moving to create the illusion of movement[1].

Desktop wallpaper trend:

Users set the Boykisser animation as their desktop wallpaper and filmed the result[2].

Plush toy versions:

Videos of plush animals "dancing" to the track, like the viral plush rat video by @idonotsmoke2938[2].

Frequently Asked Questions