Whatever Happened To The Baby Shark Kids?
Sing it all together now: "Baby shark, doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo." If you're a kid or a parent of a certain generation, those lyrics recall perhaps the biggest earworm in children's music history — "Baby Shark." Though the original song is older — 2011, at the earliest — the South Korean educational company Pinkfong uploaded its version to YouTube in 2015. Since then, "Baby Shark" has gone on to become a smash hit in the preschool crowd.
As "Shark" fans of all ages remember, the viral appeal was aided by the voice of then 10-year-old Hope Segoine as well as a bright and colorful animated music video featuring two other children: Elaine Kim Johnston Park Geon-Roung, who were both around 7 years old when the song came out. Watch the video (above), and it's nearly impossible not to get up and dance along as Park and Johnston mime the song's dance moves in their PJs. With that in mind, here's an update on where the "Baby Shark" kids are now.
Elaine Kim Johnston
In 2017, two years after Pinkfong's version of "Baby Shark" appeared on YouTube, Elaine Kim Johnston's family relocated from Korea to New Zealand, the New Zealand Herald reported. At that time, Johnston's mother — Hee Jung, or Lisa — told the outlet her daughter had modeled in Korea from the age of 4 and was asked to audition for Pinkfong's video. "She's got the energy which is why I think they liked her," Lisa said. It also took some time for Johnston to learn the "Baby Shark" dance moves, and once her school friends learned she starred in the video, they thought it was cool. But then "they tried to do it and I had to judge who was better," Johnston said. As of 2018, Johnston was enrolled in St Patrick's School in Masterton and hoped to continue her modeling career in New Zealand.
Also in 2018, New Zealand's 1News caught up with Johnston in her new home. Even she said the viral video she was so closely associated with was a little "annoying" (her sister called it a "boring song"). Commenting on the success her daughter had modeling in Korea, Lisa admitted she was a stage mom. When asked about her plans for the future, Johnston added, "My dream is to be a model." As of 2023, though, Johnston seemed to have little presence online or on social media.
Park Geon-Roung
Since 2016, Park Geon-Roung, the little boy in the Pinkfong "Baby Shark" music video, has remained active in the entertainment industry. As of 2023, Park was listed as among four other members of Play with Me Club, a K-pop group for teens and tweens. According to KProfiles, Play with Me Club released its first single, "Let's Play," in 2020. Meanwhile the group's second song, "We Are" came out in 2021.
As of 2023, Park was also active on Instagram. In October 2023 he posted a picture of himself in an SSG Landers jersey, a South Korean pro baseball team. He also posts videos of dance routines, among other music-related projects he seems to be working on. And evidently, Park still embraces his "Baby Shark" fame. In January 2022, he marked the YouTube video hitting 10 million views with an Instagram post. "Even though many years have passed, the Baby Shark craze continues. It's not cooling down. World's first!! 10 billion views!!! We made YouTube history!!!!" it said, per Google Translate.
Hope Segoine
As for Pinkfong's "Baby Shark" singer Hope Segoine, in 2019, she appeared on KTVB and admitted the song she sang even gets stuck in her own head. As of 2023, Seqoine seemed to live in Dallas, Texas, and continued to design and make art, according to her Instagram. In 2019, the song Segoine sang broke the Billboard Top 100. Three years later, in 2022, Pinkfong announced their "Baby Shark" video became the first YouTube video ever to break 10 billion views. As of 2023, that number had reached 13 billion, so it's not just you and your family belting out the song on road trips.
Speaking with KTVB in 2019, Seqoine said she didn't make any money off the smash hit beyond her one-time fee. In 2022, Forbes reported "Baby Shark" made around $9,400 a day based on YouTube views alone — that's $280,000 a month, or about $22 million all time and growing, according to data from Bonus Insider. In 2019, Segoine said, "My parents are working on getting residuals, cause the system in Korea is a little bit different."