Megastar Jason Derulo and influencer Jena Frumes are amongst the thousands of people who are continuing to ignore the Vengaboys’ recent warning across social media, and as recently published in People magazine among other media, to no longer attempt the fitness trend they have inspired on TikTok, ‘The Up and Down Challenge’ also known as #vengachallenge.
Derulo posted his video on TikTok last Saturday:
@jasonderuloWay harder than it looks @jenafrumes♬ sonido original – romeouw
Whilst Frumes also shared the video of their successfully executed ‘Up and Down Challenge’ with her 4 million followers on Instagram.
For those who have missed it, the ‘Up & Down Challenge’ is a zany and no less than acrobatic exercise that challenges couples to move up and down together and in-sync to the beats of the Vengaboys classic ‘Up & Down’. It looks easy and harmless, but that’s not always how it turns out!
Although the exercise has been performed flawlessly by many, including Jason Derulo & Jena, there are also people who end up crashing, escaping with minor injuries such as bumps and bruises, but sometimes with more serious injuries like broken bones and fractures. And, that’s simply too much according to the Vengaboys who continue to plead with viewers to stop attempting the over-the-top exercise at this time.
Vengaboys Captain Kim explained, “We are of course delighted with the huge success, but we still want to ask the TikTok community to stop this challenge. If you break a finger or sprain your wrist, you still have to go to the hospital where they have more important things on their mind right now.”
The ‘Up & Down’ Venga Challenge began 3 weeks ago with the posting of this video:
@sioned69Taking it up a notch on this fun Friday 🤪my abs are on fire 🔥##abcrunchchallenge ##fyp ##foryou ##couplegoals ##hubbywifey♬ Up & Down – Vengaboys
In the meantime, tens of thousands of ‘Up & Down’ homevideos have been posted on TikTok with a couple thousand new posts coming in everyday. Here is one that has gone viral:
@kylaanng9lolll family bonding ##fyp ##coronabreak♬ Up & Down – Vengaboys
And the risky workout craze is spreading beyond the TikTok platform. Olly Murs and coach for The Voice UK, recently posted his own video to share with his millions of Twitter and Instagram followers.
Olly Murs added: “In spite of years of body balance training, this exercise wasn’t easy to do, but we laughed a lot!”
The trending challenge is also popping up on other social media platforms as thousands more ‘Up and Down’ home videos are being shared.
Vengaboys member D-Nice said, “At least TikTok has added a warning to the ‘Up and Down’ challenge videos. And even though we can see that a lot of people are having fun, we are pleading with them to stop.”
This isn’t the first time that one of the Vengaboys’ hits has gone viral. Two years ago their banger, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom !! returned to UK charts after a man from Gloucester inspired a spontaneous street party in his neighbourhood by blasting the song out of his car speakers. The street party video was viewed tens of millions of times.
And then most recently, We’re Going To Ibiza! hit number one in Austria last year when the Vengaboys’ party anthem became the protest song of choice against a corrupt Austrian politician.
