"Castaways" (The Backyardigans)

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About

"Castaways" is a song from the children's television show The Backyardigans in which characters Pablo, Uniqua and Tyrone sing about being stranded at sea. Though initially released in 2005, the song saw an unexpected revival in the spring of 2021 after it grew popular on TikTok, causing it to top the US Spotify Viral 50 chart.

Origin

The song "Castaways" comes from the eleventh episode of The Backyardigans, which first aired on September 19th, 2005.^[1]

While it's unclear what exactly sparked the renewed interest in the song in the spring of 2021, The Daily Dot^[2] suggested that it may have been an April 7th, 2021 TikTok video by user @swagsurfff hyping up the song. The video gained over 216,000 likes (shown below).

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6948522339294301445

Spread

Over the course of April and May 2021, the song grew popular on TikTok, amassing over 227,000 views under the song's tag.^[3] Popular videos using the song include one by user @mr.palmquist teaching the song to his 9th-grade choir, gaining over 967,000 likes (shown below, left) and another by user @marccacg_ that gained over 843,000 likes (shown below, right).