The adorable little boy who danced beside the animated “Baby Shark” family in the most-watched video ever on YouTube is all grown up and now making music of his own.

“Baby Shark” creators The Pinkfong Company announced Monday that the young performer from its 2016 “Pinkfong Baby Shark Dance” clip will debut as a recording artist under the name Baby Shark Boy. His first single “WAVE” arrives later this month, on August 20 at 12:00 p.m. KST (which is August 19, 11:00 pm ET) across streaming platforms in Korea and internationally. The track features a major K-pop star, Joohoney of the boy band Monsta X. Baby Shark Boy (whose full name is Park Geonroung) is credited as a co-writer of the lyrics.

A teaser landed on both his and Baby Shark’s YouTube and social media channels Monday morning. Anyone who’s lived on planet Earth for the past decade will instantly recognize the interpolation of the classic “Baby Shark doo-doo-doo” hook paired with a trendy synth-pop beat for “WAVE.” Geonroung showcases his vocals at the very end of the 17-second teaser, singing in both Korean and English, ending the clip singing, “I’m your boy.” Strictly as a piece of music, “WAVE” feels like it could be shaping up to be a refreshing bubblegum pop track, with Baby Shark Boy showcasing sweet and promising vocals.

According to a report from Business Korea, Pinkfong shared that the single is built around the strangeness of stepping back into public view a decade later, with Baby Shark Boy’s lyrics drawing directly on his experiences.

"I’ve always been grateful that people still remember the video I was in as a child," Park Geonroung said in a statement (translated into English for this article until an official English statement is released). “Ten years ago I danced next to Baby Shark. Now I want people to hear my own voice and the story I wrote myself.”

Business Korea adds that Pinkfong is calling this its first artist project, marking an attempt to turn one of the internet’s most valuable pieces of intellectual property into something with a real human at its center. Children’s IP properties do not usually have a face attached, with The Pinkfong Company not only finding success with the Baby Shark franchise but also building out other animated IP, most recently announcing their new musical series The Big Book of Bebefinn as a new Amazon Kids+ Original this past June. But with Park as Baby Shark Boy, the company seems to be betting that one of the faces it does have in its talent pool is worth building around.

The “Pinkfong Baby Shark Dance” video has surpassed 17 billion views on YouTube, the most-watched clip on the platform by a margin no other video has even come close. In terms of views, the nearest video is another children’s song, “Wheels on the Bus” by Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes, with 9.2 billion clicks. Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” is the platform’s third-most-watched video, with 9.1 billion views.

Over a decade later, the internet still really loves “Baby Shark.” Case in point: When Pinkfong marked the song’s 10th anniversary last year with a short-form clip revisiting the now-grown Baby Shark Boy, it drew more than 24 million views and one million “likes” on Instagram alone — all signals that the curiosity and nostalgia play had legs well before there was any new material or original IP or music attached to it.

Who Is Baby Shark Boy?

Baby Shark Boy is Park Geonroung, the Korean child model who filmed the “Pinkfong Baby Shark Dance” video in 2016, alongside co-star Elaine Kim Johnston, who has developed a following all his own.

Geonroung lists his birthday as September 1, 2008, in the bio of his Instagram profile (where he’s amassed 154,000 followers), meaning he’ll turn 18 just days after releasing his first original song. Geonroung also has a YouTube channel that is not particularly active, but has 4,000 subscribers (with his most-watched video earning more than half a million clicks to date).

While he’s now resurfaced thanks to his debut as Baby Shark Boy, the future star has shared his affinity for K-pop and dance with choreography covers by artists like PSY, ZICO, Dynamicduo, EXO, SEVENTEEN, NCT, RIIZE, Stray Kids and more available for viewing across TikTok. He even gave his own spin on Megan Thee Stallion and Yuki Chiba’s viral “Mamushi” dance trend with a friend.

While Geonroung did not sing on the recording — those vocals belong to Hope Segoine, who was 10 at the time — his open-mouthed shark pose became the clip’s most recognizable image and the reason a generation of parents can picture his face without knowing his name.

Who Is Featured On Baby Shark Boy’s Song?

Joohoney is the featured artist on Baby Shark Boy’s debut single “WAVE.”

Known professionally as Joohoney, Lee Jooheon is the 31-year-old Seoul native and the main rapper, a singer and a producer in K-pop boy band Monsta X. Debuting in 2015 under Starship Entertainment, Joohoney is among the more prolific writer-producers of his idol generation, having writing or production credits on nearly every Monsta X album, helming hit singles for the group like 2021’s “Rush Hour,” 2022’s “Love,” and 2025’s “Do What I Want.” He also produced every track on both of his solo releases to date: the 2023 EP Lights and this January’s Insanity, whose single “STING” samples a famous Muhammad Ali speech and credits the famous boxer as a featured artist, with the record also featuring legendary Korean rapper Tiger JK as well as Rei from chart-topping girl group IVE. He’ll likely be heavily involved in Monsta X’s upcoming release, The Phase, out on September 4.

But perhaps most importantly, Monsta X was among the K-pop acts who performed the "Baby Shark" choreography on Korean television during the song’s 2018-2019 viral peak — making Joohoney one of the artists who helped push the song into the larger consciousness. Now, he’s lending his name and likeness again to the “Baby Shark” universe, but for the debut of the kid who most famously danced to it.

What’s Next For Baby Shark Boy?

After the single’s release, Pinkfong added that it will unveil WAVE: A Boy’s Record, a behind-the-scenes documentary tracing the years between the original shoot and now. The company framed the project as a departure from simply resurfacing a familiar face, emphasizing that the goal was to let Geonroung tell the story himself.

Real-life documentary will be an entirely new area for Pinkfong and “Baby Shark” fans to explore, and there will be eyes on whether it works as a strategy. While Pinkfong has spent years holding the top of YouTube with a song about a shark family, showing there’s a deeper interest in the actual people who helped bring the characters to life could mark a major moment for the company as it looks to diversify and expand.