Tenge Tenge Kid / Rango

Submission 15,319

Featured Episode

About

The Tenge Tenge Kid or Rango Tenge Tenge is a Ugandan TikToker who went viral in late 2023 for videos in which he sings and dances to an original song titled "Tengelele" that repeats the lyrics, "Tenge tenge." The song has become the subject of remixes on the app. Rango uses the videos to draw support and donations for his family, friends and community through GoFundMe. By February 2024, Rango boasted over 3.8 million followers on TikTok. Earlier that year, Rango appeared on a stream with IShowSpeed.

History

Rango first started posting videos to his Instagram^[1] page, @rango_tenge_tenge, on May 28, 2023, posting his first video to the TikTok^[2] page @rangotengetenge, formerly @golden.angels.int, on June 12th. His earliest content consists of comedy skits and dance videos set to various songs.

Rango's first video to gain over a million views was posted to TikTok^[3] on June 23rd, 2023, garnering over 1.1 million views in eight months (shown below, left). On July 21st, a video uploaded to the TikTok^[4] page in which Rango says "What's up my n---a" to the camera garnered over 5 million views in seven months (shown below, right).

On November 22nd, 2023, the TikToker^[5] uploaded a video in which he dances while singing a song that repeats the word "tenge" while backing into a bush, garnering over 112 million views in three months (shown below). The original sound was used over 10,000 times in the same span of time in edits and memes about Rango.

On December 11th, Rango released a fully produced version of the song on the Rango tenge tenge YouTube^[6] channel, garnering over 349,000 views in two months (shown below).

The popularity of the video inspired Rango to regularly post videos set to "Tengelele" alongside his more traditional comedy videos, many gaining millions of views (popular content examples shown below).

Online Presence

Rango, whose social media accounts are purportedly run by a parent, is active on Instagram @rango_tenge_tenge with over 800,000 followers, TikTok @rangotengetenge with over 3 million followers and YouTube at the same name with over 137,000 subscribers. He also accepts donations to help his family in Uganda through GoFundMe.^[7]

Tenge Tenge Memes / Remixes

The original sound for Rango's original "tenge tenge" video went viral throughout December 2023, inspiring over 10,000 uses by February 2024. Some of the most popular videos under the sound are recreations and edits of the original viral video by other TikTokers^[8]^[9] (examples shown below).

On December 29th, 2023, TikToker^[10] @dj_borneo_remix posted a remix of "Tengelele." The original sound was used over 24,000 times over the next two months, often as the subject of dance videos. For example, on January 22nd, 2024, TikToker^[11] @upikk.jo posted a video dancing to the song that gained over 1.7 million views in a month (shown below).

IShowSpeed Stream

In January 2024, streamer IShowSpeed hosted Rango on his stream, in which he hyped Rango up and spoke with him for a few minutes (shown below). IShowSpeed expressed a desire to meet Rango, calling him his brother. Rango then started singing a song about Speed.^[12]