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Where Did The 'Raise Your YAYAYA 💜' Meme Come From? The TikTok Trend Explained
A video of a vocal coach giving her student some very good advice on how to raise her "Ya Ya Ya" has been spreading like wildfire on TikTok. Jodie Langel posts videos of how she trains her students to find their pitch and avoid voice cracks when they belt out their songs, but one such video has made her a minor celebrity on FlopTok, TikTok's answer to Stan Twitter.
Jodie Langel was trying to teach young Athena Rae how to sing the line "Raise your right finger" from the Mean Girls the musical song "I'd Rather Be Me," but she accidentally made her and her student a viral meme instead. Here's the rub on how the Raise Your YAYAYA 💜 meme went viral.
Where Did The 'Raise Your Ya Ya Ya 💜' Video Come From?
TikToker and vocal coach @jodielangel posted a video of her coaching her student on December 20th, 2024. In the video, she can be seen standing next to her student and helping her find the right pitch to belt out the lyric "Raise your right finger" from the Mean Girls the musical song "I'd Rather Be Me." The video fulfills the message in the text overlay, which reads, "How to get rid of voice cracks!"
Surely enough, Athena Rae managed to "Find her YAYAYA" after receiving Jodie Langel's advice, and the video itself gathered over 150 million views and 17 million likes in nine days.
How Did 'Raise Your YAYAYA' Become A Meme?
As with any viral video on the internet, people found a way to show ironic their appreciation for the "Raise Your YAYAYA" video pretty early on, with X user @magdalenepop writing, "me announcing the best song on cowboy carter," and @_uncle_gworl writing, "this is like watching those evangelical pastors heal a disabled person," gathering over 120,000 likes in a week.
The meme circled back to TikTok pretty quickly, with TikTokers recreating and stitching the video to show how they too found their "YAYAYA." On December 24th, TikToker @meemawmason gathered over 4 million plays on a video with a text overlay that read, "the moment I realized I could raise my YA YA YA 💜."
What Are Some Of The More Popular 'Raise Your YAYAYA' Memes and Remixes?
The saying goes, "as is on TikTok, so must be on Roblox," and TikToker @hellohittymlg fulfilled this promise with a December 27th post where she and her friend recreated the "YAYAYA 💜" video on the children's RPG game.
Also in late December, TikToker @prod.1ucas posted an Opium style remix of the "Raise your YAYAYA video" that subsequently became a popular sports edit sound on the app. The original remix gathered over 5 million views, while an NBA compilation posted by @3d1tsssss123 racked in over 36 million views.
For the full history of Raise Your YAYAYA 💜, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.