Before The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon went on break, last month social media personality Addison Rae appeared on a segment to teach viewers what dancers were trending on TikTok and to perform her recent single, “Obsessed.”
After Rae’s performance of other creators’ dances, social media users were in an uproar, saying that the dance’s actual creators (primarily young Black men and women) should have been asked on the show. This isn’t the first time Rae has courted controversy, as during last year’s NBA All-Star Game, she and Charli D’Amelio performed Jalaiah Harmon’s “Renegade” dance while Harmon was not invited.
TikTok creator Mya Nicole Johnson, who created the “Up” challenge with her friend Chris Cotter, spoke out about the controversy. She said, I was shocked and was really happy ’cause…my challenge made it all the way TV, which is…crazy. But then as I started to think, I was like, ‘Dang. I wish that could have been me and Chris performing our own challenge at his show.'”
In an effort to right the obvious wrong, Fallon invited the creators of the dances on the show via Zoom, where they talked about going viral and performed their dance.
“On our last show before break, we did a bit with Addison Rae, where she taught me eight viral TikTok dances,” said the host. “Now, we recognize the creators of those dances deserve to have their own spotlight, so right now, some of the creators will join me to talk about how their dance went viral, and then perform the dance themselves.”
Alongside Johnson and Cotter, other performers were Keara Wilson (“Savage” challenge creator), Dorien Scott (creator of the “Corvette Corvette” dance) Fur-Quan Powell (the creator of the “Laffy Taffy” remix track) and Camyra Franklin (who created the remix’s dance) and Adam Snyder, Nate Nate and Greg Dahl (the creators of the “Blinding Lights” dance).