MA-0004 · first seen December 2004
Numa Numa
A webcam lip-sync to a Romanian-language pop hit that made an unlikely star of its creator and previewed the viral video era.
- Status
- ClassicPeaked more than five years ago
- Trend score
- 6/100Estimated
- Change, 90 days
- 0%Estimated
- Peak
- 65Mar 2005
- Years active
- 1Index of 30 or more
- First seen
- 2004December 2004
Popularity over time
Monthly attention from Dec 2004 to Oct 2026. Hover or tab through the chart for each month.
- First appearance
- Went viral
- Peak
- Decline
Attention index, 0 to 100 on one scale for the whole archive. Estimated from each meme’s key dates, not measured.
About
In December 2004 Gary Brolsma, then a young man in New Jersey, filmed himself at his computer lip-syncing and dancing to “Dragostea din tei”, a 2003 hit by the Moldovan group O-Zone. He posted the clip to Newgrounds, where the song’s “numa numa” refrain gave it its name.
The video travelled by email, blogs and message boards in early 2005, just as video sharing sites were taking off. It is remembered as one of the first online videos to turn an ordinary person into an overnight celebrity, and a model for the self-made viral clips that followed.
Origin
A webcam video posted to Newgrounds in December 2004 by Gary Brolsma, set to O-Zone’s “Dragostea din tei”.
December 2004
Viralization
Passed along by email, blogs and message boards through early 2005, then picked up by mainstream media.
February 2005
Peak
Estimated peak in the spring of 2005, as video sharing sites began to take off.
Mar 2005
Timeline
From the first post to where it stands today.
Origin
A webcam and a chair
Gary Brolsma posts a short lip-sync video to Newgrounds, set to a 2003 pop single.
Early adoption
Email chains
The clip spreads by email and message boards, shared for the sheer unselfconsciousness of it.
Viral
Mainstream attention
Newspapers and television pick up the story as one of the first viral videos to reach a wide audience.
Peak
Everyone has seen it
Parodies and imitations multiply, many of them recorded in front of webcams of their own.
Decline
A template for stardom
Home-made clips become a genre of their own; this one becomes its reference point.
Current
A piece of web history
Remembered as an early blueprint for the viral video, usually cited in histories of YouTube-era culture.
Related memes
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- 0%Classic1991
Same conversation · Same era
LOLcats
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