Chipi Chipi Chapa Chapa

Origin

‘Chipi Chipi Chapa Chapa’ is the chorus of ‘Dubidubidu’, a Spanish-language children’s song recorded in 2003 by the Chilean child singer Christell. It is a cheerful invitation to come over, play and dance, and the line in question — ‘chipi chipi chapa chapa, dubi dubi daba daba’ — is pure nonsense repetition. The song was uploaded to YouTube on September 23rd, 2010.

It is, in other words, a twenty-year-old children’s song that suddenly came back to life. The lag between recording and memeification is the most unusual thing about it.

Spread

It caught on October 27th, 2023, when the animator @Kuowonn posted a ten-second Boykisser animation set to the song. That video circulated and the track was rediscovered online.

The form most people know — a cat bobbing its head in time — was made on TikTok in December 2023. The cat is called Cocoa, and the source footage was posted by the Instagram user @mugimeshi323. It was in fact a sponsored clip of the cat using a litter tray, but the motion happened to line up with the chorus and read as dancing. Variants substituting other animals followed.

Usage

• Backing audio for videos of an animal moving in time
• Laid over any footage of something bouncing or repeating cheerfully
• Lip-sync and cover videos of the chorus alone

The words mean nothing, so no Spanish is required, and the chorus is short enough to fit any clip — the practical conditions for how far it went.

Sources

• Know Your Meme, ‘Chipi Chipi Chapa Chapa / Dubidubidu’ — Christell’s 2003 recording and the YouTube upload of September 23rd, 2010; @Kuowonn’s Boykisser animation of October 27th, 2023; the December 2023 TikTok pairing with dancing animals; the cat Cocoa and Instagram’s @mugimeshi323
• Know Your Meme explainer, ‘What Does Chipi Chipi Chapa Chapa Mean?’ — the lyric’s meaning and the meme’s lineage
• Know Your Meme video gallery — examples of the derivative videos