By Kalena Reynolds | Staff Writer
What initially started as a “Hercules” watch party for the Baylor Men’s Choir soon became the beginning of a multi-million-viewed Instagram video and recognition from LeBron James.
Baylor Men’s Choir social media manager, Louisville, Ky. junior August Rothpletz, said multiple members had approached him with the idea of recreating the viral “Man On The Lakers” video, which is a parody of Michael Jackson’s song “Man In The Mirror” originally arranged by a musician named Talented Blake.
“There’s been a meme that’s been going around even before us where people take songs, just famous pop [songs],” Rothpletz said. “They rewrite and sing the lyrics, but about LeBron James, and they’re usually accompanied by some sort of edit of LeBron James dunking on different people.”
Rothpletz decided to schedule the production of the video after a group watch party of “Hercules” that was taking place in order to help acquire inspiration for the group’s semester “Hercules” melody.
“We gathered everyone together and threw up the music for that on the projector, and in the span of 20 minutes or so, we taught everyone the song, figured out a bit of choreography for it and then filmed it,” Rothpletz said.
The video was posted around 11 a.m. on March 28, Rothpletz said. Within 24 hours, it had hit 2.2 million views on Instagram, and then around 4 million views by March 30.
On the morning of March 30, Rothpletz received an Instagram direct message from a page called “HouseofHighlights,” which has over 50 million followers.
“We got a DM that morning from them asking if they could post it on their channel,” Rothpletz said. “So we agreed [to] that. And then I think several other major channels kind of like that — Overtime, for example — also reposted the video on their accounts.”
Austin senior Briggs Ellyson, Baylor Men’s Choir president, said he had a feeling the video would go viral due to the choir’s large number of viral videos, which helped them to go from 2,000 to 95,000 followers in the past year.
While the video was a huge success for the group, on April 1, a video was posted of LeBron James mentioning the choir’s viral hit on Instagram in a post-game interview that was reposted by a popular Instagram page called Overtime, which has over 10 million followers.
James said he had seen “multiple funny videos” of all the LeBron songs, later noting that he had seen the Baylor Choir video as well.
Other notable platforms such as NBA on ESPN, Bleacher Report and DraftKings also reposted the video.
While the group has had a multitude of viral videos prior to this one, Ellyson said he was “completely floored” when he saw James mention them.
“Being recognized by LeBron is my greatest achievement,” he said. “It’s going on my resume.”
Rothpletz said the group is continuing to build on the momentum of the video and prepare for what comes next for the choir. While they are beginning the audition process, they are also gearing up for their last performance of the year.
To find out more information about the audition process, visit the Baylor Men’s Choir Instagram. The group has its spring concert at 7:30 p.m. on April 29 at Jones Concert Hall, which will double as CAE credit.
