Natasha Bedingfield's “Unwritten” was already a hit in 2004, and now 17 years later, it continues to go viral
When TikTok’s Rony Boyy originally performed “The Mob Dance” to a remix of Natasha Bedingfield’s 2004 hit “Unwritten,” he did it at a Florida gas station. He noticed it was gaining a little steam, so he and some friends gave an impromptu performance of it at Universal Studios in Orlando.
Fast-forward a couple of months, and he and his crew flew out to California so they could teach it to her in person. Inside Edition Digital’s Stephanie Officer chatted with Natasha Bedingfield and Rony Boyy for the scoop on how it happened.
How it started: It's 2004, and Natasha Bedingfield has a smash hit titled “Unwritten.” How it’s going: 17 years later, a TikToker named Rony Boyy creates a dance to a popular “Unwritten” remix, and it goes viral. That led to him having the chance to dance with Natasha in person.
Natasha explains how it feels for her song to blow up once again. “I love it,” she said. “I mean, songwriting is its magic. It's pulling something out of the air that didn't exist, tapping in.”
She adds that she was in the studio when she came across the remix. “I'm going, ‘What just happened? Who are these people?’ It's Esco, Danny, and Shawn P. These kids, I guess they grew up together. They did a version of ‘Unwritten’ that is just mind-blowing.”
The remix spawned a couple of popular challenges, including one Natasha got in on. And when video of her dancing hit the Internet, there were several entertaining comments, such as, “She didn't say the sunshine was in her back pockets.”
And Natasha takes them all in stride. “The comments are the best. That's the secret that Natasha Bedingfield has had that nobody has known about. It didn't. I just had to say. It didn't appear during the pandemic. I've always had a booty for some reason.”
And that video led to Rony creating his dance. “And I was like, man, we can do so much more with this,” he explains. “I really feel connected with this song and this beat. I made a dance. It took me at least 20 minutes.” And after “The Mob Dance” went viral, he flew out to Los Angeles to teach it to her.
Rony explained how the epic meet-up happened. “I messaged her on Instagram because we were going back and forth in the DMs, and she said, yes, that would be perfect.”
“Immediately, she made me feel like a celebrity, honestly. She was like, ‘Oh, Rony. Oh man, goosebumps.’ She gave me that comfortable vibe, so it was very easy to communicate with her and very easy to work with her and stuff like that. She was a very chill, chill woman, and we were able to get the dance done and all that type of stuff.”
22-year-old Rony lives in Florida and works at a non-profit called Digital Vibez. He teaches kids tech, dance, and how to stay fit through the arts. Since Rony was born in Jamaica, his heritage influences his dance. And the students he works with are quite aware that he is TikTok-famous.
And not only is his dancing helping his students but others as well. “A lot of schools have reached out to me,” He says. “They're like, ‘Hey, we did the dance at our school,’ and everything like that, "Your dancing has been helping these kids stay positive." And the kids, whenever I go to my sites, I do the same thing with them. We record videos. It just keeps them uplifted.”
“That positive vibe and energy that I get from that is what honestly keeps me going to do what I do.”
One positive aspect of this story getting attention is that Natasha Bedingfield used her platform and gave them immediate credit. Especially because many Black creators don’t get the same amount of attention, care, recognition for their art as other creators on TikTok do.
And for that, Rony is grateful. “It's really dope. It says a lot about her, herself. That she doesn't let the outside influence dictate how she moves. She showed that love. She shows her support and everything like that. She put it out there.”
And this whole experience hasn’t only been fun, but according to Natasha, it’s been a teaching moment. “So I think for me as I've grown through this, I've realized how important that is to shine a light on creators in general.”
“There's whole creative communities of people helping each other, people working together that this whole mentality of it's a dog-eat-dog world, and you have to step on people to get up, I just don't agree with that,” she adds.
Right now, Natasha Bedingfield is working on new music. And Rony, who aspires to open his own dance studio, says these videos with Natasha have opened up many opportunities for them to perform as coronavirus restrictions ease. And who knows, maybe what’s unwritten for Natasha and Rony will lead to more moments like this. Them spreading joy to millions and making content for the next generation to discover.
