maxwell

A Swedish eurodance song from 1998 somehow became the chorus blasting out of millions of cheap plastic toy phones worldwide. Smile. dk released Butterfly on their debut album that year. The duo built the track around a bright bubbly beat and lyrics about a girl searching for her perfect samurai knight. Konami added it straight into the first Dance Dance Revolution arcade game – the one where players step on floor pads to match the rhythm. It took off hard in arcades across Asia. Smile. dk even became the first foreign act to perform on South Korea’s biggest music TV show in 1999. Then came the twist. Chinese factories sampled the unmistakable “Ay iyai yai” hook into toy phones and gadgets sold everywhere. An entire generation grew up hearing it on repeat from their playroom shelves. Veronica Almqvist, the only founding member still with the group, continues performing the song live today.