Oh good. Another viral nonsense is upon us.
If there is one thing I have learned as a parent, it’s that annoying trends will never end. They change every few months, the old is replaced with the new, but there will forever be an irritating ear worm or meaningless phrase to suffer through, right up until our kids ship off to university.
The world’s latest gift is the Chicken Banana song.
It actually came out in February 2025, but I had managed to avoid it until last month. Then I heard my son singing “chicken – banana – chicken – banana” over and over in the living room, and made the mistake of asking him what he was singing.
Since then, my life has been punctuated with the song itself or the words injected infuriatingly into every other sentence. Absolute comedy gold like this:
- “Mummy you look like a chicken banana”
- “Mummy you smell like a chicken banana”
- Helping him with his maths homework: “Is the answer a chicken banana?”
- Asking him what he did at school today: “I ate a chicken banana”
- If I ask what he wants for his tea: “Can I have a chicken banana?”
I actually did give him chicken and banana for his tea one afternoon and he cried…
Anyway, I thought looking into the origins of the… song? Are we calling it a song? I guess so. Anyway, I thought looking into the origins of the Chicken Banana song might help me understand the appeal and make it less annoying.
It didn’t, but I’ve done the research now so you may as well learn about it too.
It Came From Sweden
A YouTube account called Crazy Music Channel is responsible for the Chicken Banana song, and it is available everywhere now.
Apple Music rather generously categorises it as ‘Pop’, but really, it’s a deliberately silly electronic novelty track with a techno beat, and the lyrics, in full, are as follows:
Chicken banana, chicken banana, chicken banana, banana banana.
On repeat. For 2 minutes. Accompanied by a music video featuring a banana with a chicken head, chicken and banana pizzas spinning on DJ decks, and an alien dialling a telephone. You actually feel a bit high after watching it.
Since its release, the video has racked up more than 211 million views, gone through countless remixes, and driven approximately 485,240 parents clinically insane.
Including me.
There is no hidden meaning, no in joke you don’t understand, it’s just a couple of Swedish blokes who thought chicken banana sounded funny then made a dance track out of it. And probably made loads of money off the back of it too.
Why Kids Are Saying It
Quite simply, the video did well and everyone shared it. It went viral. In May 2025, Sony Music announced that the song had enjoyed over 10 billion views across all major platforms. It was also available on the likes of Spotify and Amazon Music.
All from a song that simply names a farmyard animal and a piece of fruit. We really are doomed as a species, aren’t we? 😂
People had also started creating their own dance videos to it. On TikTok alone there were more than 2 million chicken banana dance videos. That was after three months so Lord knows how many there are now, a year later.
Some of them are quite good to be fair:
@gregoriansisters🐓 🍌♬ Chicken Banana – Crazy Music Channel
Oh to be young again and have my waistline back…
Anyway, it filtered down to the kids and ended up in schools, and now playgrounds in England are full of children randomly saying “Chicken Banana” and teachers and parents wondering why. It’s the 6-7 thing all over again.
The fact that parents find it perplexing probably adds to the fun for children. They always enjoy things that feel like they belong to them and not to the adults, so the more confused we seem the more likely they are to keep saying it.
There’s nothing you can say to counter it, though. No clever comeback or a reply that shows you’re in on the joke.
And you’re not missing anything. There’s nothing to miss. There is only chicken, and banana 🐔🍌