Could one of the internet’s most recognizable child stars be heading for an unlikely second act in pop music?
For a stretch of time, the Baby Shark song was almost impossible to avoid. It played from tablets and phones and seemed to follow people from living rooms to supermarket aisles. Once that “doo doo doo doo doo doo” got stuck in your head, it rarely went away.
Now the boy from the brightly colored viral video is stepping back into the spotlight with plans for a K-pop debut. Park Geon Roung, known as “Baby Shark Boy”, is scheduled to release his first single on August 20, according to the Korea Herald.
Park is now 17, and his appearance in the clip came about 10 years ago. The global version of the children’s track was popularized by South Korean company Pinkfong, which drew inspiration from an older chant often heard around campfires.
The recording most audiences know was sung by then 10-year-old Korean-American singer Hope Segoine, while the video featured two child performers: Park and Elaine Kim Johnston from New Zealand. The “Baby Shark Dance” video, released in June 2016, has accumulated 17.2 billion views and held YouTube’s global number one spot for 69 consecutive months.
The song went on to become a massive success, reaching number 32 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 6 on the UK Singles Chart. Its popularity also helped create a much larger Baby Shark brand, including a Nickelodeon television series, mobile apps, books, and toys.
It even became the center of a copyright dispute. In 2019, American children’s entertainer Jonathan Wright, who performs as Johnny Only, filed a lawsuit against Pinkfong in South Korea, arguing that its Baby Shark version copied his 2011 recording and repeated original elements from his arrangement.
That claim was rejected by the Seoul Central District Court in 2021, which determined that Wright’s version was itself based on a traditional children’s song and lacked the originality needed for copyright protection. An appeal failed in 2023, and South Korea’s Supreme Court ended the case in August 2025 by ruling that Pinkfong had not infringed Wright’s copyright.
As for Park, he is now moving ahead with his own music career. His debut will arrive later this month with a Korean-language single titled “Wave”. The track will include Joohoney of Monsta X, and Park also co-wrote it. This is not his first foray into K-pop; Park previously appeared in the K-pop kids group Play With Me Club, which debuted in 2020.
Explaining the release, Park said, “I’ve always been grateful that people still remember a video I appeared in as a kid. Ten years ago I was dancing next to Baby Shark. Now, I wanted to share my own voice and a story I wrote myself,” according to The Korea Herald.
A company representative also said, “This isn’t just about bringing back the boy from the video. It’s about him telling his own story, and we want to carry that new beginning forward authentically.” Pinkfong said Park’s debut would not be treated as a typical K-pop idol debut, with any future activities depending on the response to the single. The company is also releasing a documentary titled “WAVE: A Boy’s Record” that will trace his transformation from child star to musician.