About
Bassie en Adriaan Theme Song Challenge is a YouTube video fad in which a non-Dutch speaker attempts to sing the lyrics to the theme song from the popular 1980s Dutch children’s show Bassie en Adriaan. Due to the general difficulty of phonetically mimicking a foreign language, and further compounded by the rapid pace of the song, the challenge has spawned a series of videos showing humorous and poorly-executed renditions of the theme song.
Origin
The TV show Bassie en Adriaan,[1] a children’s show featuring the adventures of the titular clown and acrobat, premiered in the Netherlands in 1984. A karaoke version of the theme song was first uploaded to YouTube by YouTuber bassieadriaanchannel[2] on July 9th, 2012. As of September 2014, the video has gained over 110,000 views.
On September 7th, 2014, YouTuber matjz[3] uploaded a video titled “Amerikaan zingt bassie en adriaan” (“American sings Bassie and Adriaan”), which features an American man[4] reading the Dutch lyrics to the Bassie en Adriaan theme song as the background instrumentals play. Within a week the video gained over 140,000 views.
Lyrics
Dutch Lyrics:
Hallo vriendjes en vriendinnetjes.English Translation:
We komen er weer aan.
Hallo vriendjes en vriendinnetjes.
‘t is Bassie. En Adriaan.
Hello friends and girlfriends.
Here we come again.
Hello friends and girlfriends.
It’s Bassie. And Adriaan.
Spread
On September 9th, YouTuber MNMbe[4] uploaded a video of two radio personalities singing the song, within a week the video had gained over 5,000 views. On September 10th, YouTuber Christian Becker[5] uploaded a video of himself singing the song, within a week the video gained over 5,000 views.