“Bole Chudiyan” or “Bohemian Rhapsody”? We Compiled a Hand-Wash Playlist for You to Fight Corona

Who knew we’d be fighting a global pandemic not even half way in 2020 and our best bet would be washing our damn hands? Yeah, that thing mama told you when you were two could potentially save your life… and help you achieve social media fame. Just like this teacher. Amanda Lorenzo, a pre-kindergarten teacher from Florida, is an internet rage. The 23-year-old first uploaded a video that explains germs and hygiene to children on her personal Instagram. With a simple experiment using pepper, water, and soap, she taught her little students the importance of hand-washing. 

Lorenzo filled a dish with water and pepper and can be heard instructing her students to dip their finger into the “virus” (black pepper and water), and then dip their little peppered finger into soap before dipping it into the “virus” again. The simple experiment is a hands-on tactic and has wowed her students as well as the internet.

“Learning about the importance of washing our hands!🧼 I wish you all could’ve seen how truly shocked they were that the “virus,” (pepper) moves away from the soap! So much fun and very informative! The things you learn from #TikTok 😂,” she wrote on Instagram.  

 

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A post shared by Amanda Lorenzo (@mandysmunchkins_) on Mar 10, 2020 at 1:14pm PDT

According to experts, you should wash your hands for 20 seconds with soap which is more or less the amount of time one would take to sing the birthday song… twice. However, people soon enough got sick of singing Happy Birthday to themselves and came up with their own hand wash song suggestions instead.

For lovers of Bollywood, Twitter user Yasmeen suggested, “Bole Chudiyan, Bole Kangana”.

So there's the happy birthday hand wash song.

For Asians there is…….. #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/A6pz3wHnoY

— Yasmeen (@YasmeenNIq) March 14, 2020

Not your style? We have more options. Seventeen-year-old William Gibson has created a non-profit Wash Your Lyrics site that generates a poster matching the lyrics to the 13-step washing routine based on your song choice. In the first three days, around 1,75,000 posters were created on the website. The posters are being shared extensively on social media and garnered praise from British  health secretary Matt Hancock. 

17-year-old William Gibson has freed us from “Happy Birthday”!

On his website, users can input any song and have it matched to the handwashing routine that’s so important in preventing the spread of #coronavirus.

Stay healthy, and have fun doing it! 🎵https://t.co/vucJHjUm3L

— UNICEF (@UNICEF) March 13, 2020

According to the BBC, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” is the most popular poster so far. 

There’s no competing with Queen, but Brandon Flowers, the lead singer of The Killers, gave us another song. He posted a video on Twitter with his personal recommendation, a rendition to “Mr Brightside” from the band’s 2003 release.

But this is. pic.twitter.com/PlyHdzo2pM

— The Killers (@thekillers) March 16, 2020

Beyond Twitter, the experts at WHO decided to take matters into their own hands and went the TikTok way with a #SafeHands Challenge. Dr Tedros, WHO Director-General, is seen following a quick but effective 11-steps hand washing practice, requesting viewers to join in.

@who

Join the WHO ##SafeHands challenge and show us how you practice ##handhygiene to be safe from ##coronavirus. Let’s fight ##COVID19 together!

♬ original sound – who

The famous disco-era singer Gloria Gaynor wasn’t too far behind. In a zest to show users how to combat Covid-19 through the 20-seconds hand-wash rule, Gaynor gave TikTok the #IWillSurviveChanllenge off her hit song. As of Monday, the hashtag garnered over two million views on TikTok alone, reported the Time. 

@gloriagaynor

It only takes :20 seconds to “SURVIVE!”👏💕🎶 ##iWillSurviveChallenge ##fyp ##coronavirus ##handwashing

♬ I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor

Back home, TikTok India has been buzzing with a challenge of its own – the #HandWashChallenge. In collaboration with Dettol, TikTok is taking measures to spread awareness about coronavirus through this now viral challenge and adding fun to “functional” while doing so. 

@surajpalsingh964

Let’s prioritise washing hands! ##handwashchallenge @dettol_india

♬ Hand Washing Song – Viruss

Of course there’s a song and a four-steps based filter; the challenge has over 5.2 billion views at the moment. 

And you thought social media challenges were so 2010s!

If the world is going gaga over washing hands, how can Twitter be left behind? It has created a hand wash emoji that appears alongside the challenge-related hashtags – #HandWashing, #HandWashChallenge, #SafeHands or #WashYourHands 

Twitter have created a hand washing emoji to support the current advice.

Use these hashtags to generate the emoji:#handwashing #SafeHands #HandWashChallenge #WashYourHands

And share the message:

Wash your hands more often, for at least 20 seconds each time with soap.

— Mason Mills (@MrMasonMills) March 14, 2020

While you’re trying to figure your favourite tune to fight coronavirus with, remember to not keep the tap water running. There’s only so much we can dance away to, when we know we have another crisis lurking around.