What is the 'Barbara Rhubarb' dance TikTok trend?

You might have noticed a number of TikTok videos playing some kind of German rap song on your For You page lately.

Well, it's not actually a rap, but rather a German tongue twister which musical comedian Bodo Wartke, and his friend Marti Fischer who is a content creator decided to transform.

In December last year, the duo posted a two-part video of themselves speaking the rhyme called "Barbaras Rhabarberba" or "Barbara’s Rhubarb Bar" which is about a woman named Barbara and her rhubarb cakes.

Like any good tongue twister, it gets more complex and convoluted as the story goes on - and as Wartke realised, he could turn it into a catchy rap.

The translated lyrics go: "In a small village there once lived a girl with the name Barbara. Barbara was known in the area for her excellent rhubarb pie.

"Because everyone liked eating Barbara's rhubarb pie so much, they called her Rhubarb Barbara."

The song then garnered further attention in March this year when Australians TikTokers Stephanie and Christina ( @steph_who___ and @Christina Stasii) posted a video of themselves inside a public toilet dancing to the rap and wearing costumes which received 16.6m views,

"POV: You have a song you can't even understand stuck 24/7," the on-screen text read.

They then posted another video, repeating the dance routine they came up with which also went even more viral with 18m views, and sparked a new dance trend.

"We looked like this because we're theatre kids. We did this half an hour before a performance," Stephanie later explained in another post, and addressed confusion people had thinking another pair copied them, when it was actually still them.

"I appreciate people messaging us saying 'they stole your dance, they even went to the same bathroom', but I can assure you it's okay because we're the one and the same person actually."

Nearly 29,000 video have been made using the sound, including American influencers Austin and Marideth Telenko (@cost_n_mayor) and actor Kaycee Stroh (@kaycstroh).

Wartke and Fischer even participating in the dance trend to their rap in a video that has over 22m views.

"Thank you to @Stephanie and @CHRISTINA STASII for the great choreography you came up with for our song, and many thanks to everyone around the world who is dancing to it, especially @Cost n’ Mayor and @KayCee Stroh for making it a worldwide phenomenon!" Wartke wrote.

"@Marti Fischer and I are already working on the sequel…!"

At the beginning of this year, discussion of a contract renewal between Universal Music Group (UMG) TikTok fell through and result in UMG removing its artists music from the platform which could perhaps explain why songs like "Barbaras Rhabarberba" have been going viral.

On May 1, UMG announced that it has come to a new licensing agreement with TikTok and music from their artists have now returned to the platform.

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