A new series starts today. This series details the 10 songs that have spent the most weeks in the UK Top 100 since the charts were first compiled in the late 1950’s/early 1960’s.
“Dance Monkey” is a song by Australian singer Toones and I, released in May 2019 as the second single (first in the US) from Tones and I’s debut EP The Kids are Coming. The song was produced and mixed by Konstantin Kersting.
“Dance Monkey” topped the official singles charts in over 30 countries and peaked within the top ten of many others, including the United States. The song broke the record for the most weeks at number one on the Australian singles chart. It also broke the record for the most weeks spent at the top of the Uk Singles Chart by a female artist. When it hit number four in the US, it became the first top-five hit solely written by a woman in over eight years.
When interviewed by DJ Smallzy in July 2019 on Australian radio station Nova FM, Tones explained that Dance Monkey’s lyrics are about the relationship she had with her audience when she was busking on the streets of Australia: “I wrote this song when I was busking, and about the pressure that I felt to always be entertaining people on the street. And if they didn’t like it, when they looked at their phones they could just click something else; … we are all so used to being entertained at the click of a button.”” So when you’re busking, .. to command attention, people would be like: ‘again! again!’ .. ‘more! more!’ .. or they would just leave. So if you replace: ‘dance for me, dance for me’ with ‘sing for me, sing for me,’ it’s pretty literal,” she said.
The music video was produced by Visible Studios, directed by Liam Kelly and Nick Kozakis and released in June 2019. The video follows “Mr. Tones”, an elderly man who sneaks out of his home to have a dance party at a golf course with other senior citizens. Due to the overcast weather on the day of filming, every shot of the music video had its sky replaced digitally. As of October 2021, the video has over 1.7 billion views on YouTube. The music video was filmed at Eynesbury Golf Club, Victoria, Australia.
The song has received a number of awards. It won Best Pop Release at the ARIA Music Awards 2019, Song of the Year at the Apra Music Awards 2020, and Independent Song of the Year at the AIR Awards 2020. It was also the Grand Prize winner of the 2019 International Songwriting Competition.
