#ylvis

Ylvis - The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?) 2013

"The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)" is an electronic dance novelty song and viral video by Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis. The top trending video of 2013 on Youtube has received over 1.1 billion views as of November 2025. "The Fox" peaked at the top of the Norwegian Singles Chart and was successful in the US, where it peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks, and was at the time the highest-ranked song by a Norwegian artist on the chart since A-ha's number-one song "Take On Me" (poll #91) in 1985. The song had sold 1,367,000 copies in the US as of June 2014, and was the best-selling single of the year. Originally an "anti-hit" produced to promote the duo's new season of Norwegian television talk show I kveld med YLVIS (Tonight with Ylvis), it was uploaded to Youtube as a teaser. Intended for comedic purposes to be a flop, "The Fox" unexpectedly went viral, becoming their breakout song and drawing international attention to the group. In 2013, Ylvis stated there were no plans to release an album including the song or any sequel to it.

The brothers Vegard and Bård Ylvisåker signed a deal with Simon & Schuster to publish a children's book illustrated by Svein Nyhus based on the song, which was released on 10 December 2013, called "The Fox". They said that the book is not a spin-off because the idea was conceived before the song had become viral. The children's book was an instant success, being the bestselling children's picture book for the week ending 29 December 2013 according to The New York Times Book Review, and coming in twenty-third on USA Today's list of best-selling books for the week of 19 December 2013. The book was sold out in a day on Amazon, and broke the record in children's publishing for selling more than 60,000 units in-store within one week, pushing for a sixth reprinting with 300,000 copies in print a week after its initial release.

Like many viral music videos, "The Fox" has become an Internet meme and has been extensively covered and adapted by others. A video showing actor Morgan Freeman reading the lyrics of "The Fox" aloud when being interviewed by online TV/movies review site Screen Junkies has also garnered media attention and millions of Youtube views. The song appears in Disney's 2025 animated film Zootopia 2.

"The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)" received a total of 57,8% yes votes.

What's the purpose of Stonehenge?

A giant granite brithdaycake

Or a prison far too easy to escape

Ylvis, the Norwegian duo that gained global popularity for the song "What Does the Fox Say?", announced on their Instagram that they were slated to take part in Melodi Grand Prix but would no longer be doing so.

Since the beginning of their talks with NRK, Ylvis said that they did not want to share the Eurovision stage with Israel, and held out hope that the EBU would not allow Israel to compete. Once it became clear that Israel would take part in the contest, Ylvis "saw no other option than to withdraw from this year's competition."

Ylvis said they were looking forward to taking part in Eurovision but can now not stand behind the idea of taking part. They hope that in the future Eurovision will change and "once again...become the unifying celebration it is meant to be."

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I've known about this song for like 10 years but for SOME REASON my brain decided that this is gonna be playing in my head on repeat non-stop for the past WEEK.

It's tormenting me.