{"id":588905,"date":"2026-08-10T12:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/588905\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T12:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:54:13","slug":"baby-shark-boy-grows-up-to-make-k-pop-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/588905\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Baby Shark Boy\u2019 grows up, to make K-pop debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SEOUL \u2013 The child performer featured in YouTube\u2019s most-viewed video of all time, known as \u201cBaby Shark Boy\u201d in South Korea, is set to make his K-pop debut on Aug 20, according to The Pinkfong Company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The global family entertainment company behind Pinkfong and Baby Shark announced on Aug 10 that Baby Shark Boy will release his first digital single, WAVE, a Korean-language track with lyrics he co-wrote, featuring Joohoney of K-pop group Monsta X.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Baby Shark Boy, whose real name is Park Geon-roung, 17, first appeared <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/asia\/east-asia\/south-korean-top-court-rules-baby-shark-not-plagiarised?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\">in Baby Shark Dance in 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The video has since surpassed 17.2 billion views. It held YouTube\u2019s global No. 1 spot for 69 consecutive months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Park made a surprise return in 2025 in short-form videos marking the song\u2019s 10th anniversary, which together drew 22 million views.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cI\u2019ve always been grateful that people still remember a video I appeared in as a kid,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cTen years ago, I was dancing next to Baby Shark. Now, I want to share my own voice and a story I wrote myself. I\u2019m happy to start something new with the people who\u2019ve remembered me all this time, and I want to keep showing how I grow from here,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cBaby Shark Boy grew up alongside Baby Shark and built a special connection with fans around the world,\u201d a company representative said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t just about bringing back the boy from the video. It\u2019s about him telling his own story, and we want to carry that new beginning forward authentically.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The move signals <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/business\/baby-shark-creator-pinkfong-seeks-to-raise-70-million-from-seoul-ipo?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\">Kosdaq-listed The Pinkfong Company\u2019s<\/a> ambition to extend the Baby Shark brand beyond children\u2019s content and into the broader K-pop market, where idol debuts routinely generate international attention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The company told The Korea Herald, however, that this is not a typical K-pop idol debut but a one-off project, and that decisions on his future activities will be made after the single\u2019s release. THE KOREA HERALD\/ASIA NEWS NETWORK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL \u2013 The child performer featured in YouTube\u2019s most-viewed video of all time, known as \u201cBaby Shark Boy\u201d&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":["post-588905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}