"Dance Monkey" is a song by Australian singer Tones and I, released on 10 May 2019 as the second single (first in the US) from Tones and I's debut EP, The Kids Are Coming. The song was produced and mixed by Konstantin Kersting.
"Dance Monkey" topped the official singles charts in over 38 countries and peaked within the top ten of many others, including the United States. The song broke the record for the most weeks at number one on the Australian singles chart at 24 non-consecutive weeks. It also broke the record for the most weeks spent at the top of the UK Singles Chart by a female artist with 11 weeks at the top. When it hit number four in the US, it became the first top-five hit solely written by a woman in over eight years. On Spotify, as of March 2024, the song is the most streamed by a female artist and the thirteenth-most overall, with over 3 billion streams. The song was also the first song by a female artist to reach 3 billion streams.
The song has received a number of awards. It won Best Pop Release at the ARIA Music Awards of 2019, Song of the Year at the APRA Music Awards of 2020 and Independent Song of the Year at the AIR Awards of 2020. It was also the Grand Prize winner of the 2019 International Songwriting Competition.
Lyrics When interviewed by DJ Smallzy in July 2019 on Australian radio station Nova FM, Tones explained that "Dance Monkeys lyrics are about the relationship she had with her audience when she was busking (street performing) on the streets of Australia:
Music video Liam Kelly and Nick Kozakis directed the music video, which was released on 24 June 2019, produced by Visible Studios. It follows the character "Mr. Tones" (played by Tones and I), an elderly man who sneaks out of a care home with his friends so they can go to a golf course and have a dance party with other senior citizens.
Due to the overcast weather on the day of filming, every shot of the music video had its sky replaced digitally. In 2020, it was added to APRA billion streams list. Note: Non-Australasian co-writers are not shown. As of September 2026, the video has over 2.3 billion views on YouTube. The music video was filmed at Eynesbury Golf Club, Victoria, Australia.
Commercial performance
Upon reaching its tenth week at the top of the Australian Singles Chart, "Dance Monkey" broke the record for the most weeks at number one on the chart by an Australian artist. In November 2019, during its sixteenth week at number one, it broke the record for the most weeks at number one in Australia's ARIA chart history (1983–present), previously held by Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" (2017). "Dance Monkey" also holds the record for the longest time at number one across Australian singles charts, with 24 weeks (including 21 consecutive weeks from August to late December 2019).
In the United Kingdom, "Dance Monkey" broke the record for the most weeks spent at the top of the UK Singles Chart by a female artist when it remained at the top of the chart for an eleventh week. The previous record of ten weeks was held jointly by Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" in 1992–1993 and "Umbrella" by Rihanna and Jay-Z in 2007.
"Dance Monkey" was the sixth highest ranked global digital single of 2019 according to IFPI, moving 11.4 million converted units. In November 2020, "Dance Monkey" was declared the most Shazamed song of all time with 36.6 million searches. In December 2020, Dance Monkey became the third most-streamed song on Spotify with over 2.5 billion streams, making Tones the first female artist to do so.
Reception Al Newstead from ABC called the song "another powerhouse melody" adding it will "instantly lodge itself in your brain". Mike Kaplan, senior VP/Programming for Entercom Alternative WNYL New York City (the first station in the United States to play the song), notes "Sonically, it's catchy and extremely memorable," adding "Its international success certainly helped convince us to share it with our listeners.""Tones And I's Global Smash 'Dance Monkey' Swings Onto Billboard Hot 100" from Billboard (17 September 2019)
However, despite its commercial success, Dance Monkey has proved divisive. Tones even expressed that she "loathe[s] that song a lot of the time [...] a lot of times I don't want to sing it."
Live performances Tones made her debut on US television on 18 November 2019 with a performance of the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. On 10 December 2019, Tones appeared as a guest performer again in the US on The Voice. The following week, "Dance Monkey" entered the US Billboard Hot 100 top ten for the first time at number nine, and later peaked at number four on the chart.
Accolades At the ARIA Music Awards of 2019, Tones and I was nominated for eight awards, winning four. Tones won ARIA Award for Best Female Artist and Breakthrough Artist while "Dance Monkey" won Best Pop Release and The Kids Are Coming EP won Best Independent Release. At the APRA Music Awards of 2020, "Dance Monkey" was nominated for Song of the Year, Most Performed Australian Work of the Year and Most Performed Pop Work of the Year, winning Song of the Year. At the AIR Awards of 2020, the song won Independent Song of the Year. In May 2020, "Dance Monkey" was announced as the Grand Prize winner of the 2019 International Songwriting Competition.
Personnel Credits adapted from Spotify. Toni Watson – vocals, composer Konstantin Kersting – mixing, production Andrei Eremin – mastering
Charts
Weekly charts +2019–2021 weekly chart performance for "Dance Monkey" Chart (2019–2021) Peakposition Brazil Airplay (Crowley Charts) Note: In SEMANA REFERÊNCIA select 25/05/2020 - 29/05/2020. To access the full Top 100, click on VER TOP 100 COMPLETO and enter your name and email. Then enter the code you received by email. 29 Brazil International Pop Airplay (Crowley Charts) Note: In SEMANA REFERÊNCIA select 03/02/2020 - 07/02/2020. 1 Bulgaria Airplay (PROPHON) 1 Colombia Airplay (National-Report) 4 Croatia International Airplay (Top lista) 2 Dominican Republic Airplay () 19 Ecuador Airplay (National-Report) 1 Estonia (Eesti Tipp-40) 1 Euro Digital Song Sales (Billboard) 1 Greece International (IFPI) 1 Hong Kong (HKRIA) 14 Iceland (Tónlistinn) 1 Israel International Airplay (Media Forest) 1 Latvia Streaming (LaIPA) 1 Lithuania (AGATA) 1 Lebanon (Lebanese Top 20) 2 Luxembourg Digital (Billboard) 1 Malaysia (RIM) 1 Mexico Airplay (Billboard) 1 Romania (Airplay 100) 1 Singapore (RIAS) 1 Slovenia Airplay (SloTop50) 1 South Africa Streaming (RISA) 27 South Korea (Gaon) 15 US Rolling Stone Top 100 3Wales (OCC) 17 +2022 weekly chart performance for "Dance Monkey"Chart (2022)Peakposition +2023 weekly chart performance for "Dance Monkey"Chart (2023)Peakposition Belarus Airplay (TopHit) 102 Kazakhstan Airplay (TopHit) 119 Moldova Airplay (TopHit) 104 Romania Airplay (TopHit) 94 Ukraine Airplay (TopHit) 105 +2024 weekly chart performance for "Dance Monkey"Chart (2024)Peakposition Belarus Airplay (TopHit) 153 Estonia Airplay (TopHit) 180 Kazakhstan Airplay (TopHit) 187 Romania Airplay (TopHit) 88 Ukraine Airplay (TopHit) 119 +2025 weekly chart performance for "Dance Monkey"Chart (2025)Peakposition Belarus Airplay (TopHit) 167 Estonia Airplay (TopHit) 169 +2026 weekly chart performance for "Dance Monkey"Chart (2026)Peakposition Estonia Airplay (TopHit) 181 Moldova Airplay (TopHit) 151 Romania Airplay (TopHit) 163
Monthly charts +2019 monthly chart performance for "Dance Monkey" Chart (2019) Position CIS Airplay (TopHit) 2 Paraguay (SGP) 37 Russia Airplay (TopHit) 2 Ukraine Airplay (TopHit) 1
+2020 monthly chart performance for "Dance Monkey" Chart (2020) Position CIS Airplay (TopHit) 2 Russia Airplay (TopHit) 5 Ukraine Airplay (TopHit) 1
+2020 monthly chart performance for "Dance Monkey" Chart (2020) Position CIS Airplay (TopHit) 42 Ukraine Airplay (TopHit) 35 Russia Airplay (TopHit) 61
+2024 monthly chart performance for "Dance Monkey" Chart (2024) Position Moldova Airplay (TopHit) 45
Year-end charts +2019 year-end chart performance for "Dance Monkey" Chart (2019) Position Australia (ARIA) 2 Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40) 1 Belgium (Ultratop Flanders) 9 Belgium (Ultratop Wallonia) 9 Canada (Canadian Hot 100) 81 CIS Airplay (TopHit) 46 Denmark (Tracklisten) 4 France (SNEP) 7 Germany (Official German Charts) 2 Hungary (Rádiós Top 40) 54 Hungary (Single Top 40) 4 Iceland (Tónlistinn) 6 Ireland (IRMA) 4 Italy (FIMI) 15 Latvia (LAIPA) 2 Netherlands (Dutch Top 40) 14 Netherlands (Single Top 100) 10 New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ) 11 Poland (ZPAV) 18 Portugal (AFP) 38 Romania (Airplay 100) 47 Russia Airplay (TopHit) 41 Slovenia (SloTop50) 46 Spain (PROMUSICAE) 61 Sweden (Sverigetopplistan) 2 Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade) 5Tokyo (Tokio Hot 100) 21 Ukraine Airplay (TopHit) 174 UK Singles (OCC) 8 Worldwide (IFPI) 6
+2020 year-end chart performance for "Dance Monkey" Chart (2020) Position Argentina Airplay (Monitor Latino) 2 Australia (ARIA) 4 Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40) 3 Belgium (Ultratop Flanders) 4 Belgium (Ultratop Wallonia) 4 Canada (Canadian Hot 100) 1 CIS Airplay (TopHit) 15 Denmark (Tracklisten) 8 France (SNEP) 4 Germany (Official German Charts) 2 Hungary (Dance Top 40) 1 Hungary (Rádiós Top 40) 3 Hungary (Single Top 40) 3 Hungary (Stream Top 40) 4 Ireland (IRMA) 5 Italy (FIMI) 17 Mexico Airplay (Monitor Latino) 2 Mexico Streaming (Monitor Latino) 2 Netherlands (Dutch Top 40) 77 Netherlands (Single Top 100) 3 New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ) 5 Poland (ZPAV) 48 Romania (Airplay 100) 18 Russia Airplay (TopHit) 30 Spain (PROMUSICAE) 5 South Korea (Gaon) 28 Sweden (Sverigetopplistan) 5 Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade) 2 Ukraine Airplay (TopHit) 2 UK Singles (OCC) 2 US Billboard Hot 100 14 US Adult Top 40 (Billboard) 33 US Dance/Mix Show Airplay (Billboard) 26 US Mainstream Top 40 (Billboard) 22 US Hot Rock & Alternative Songs (Billboard) 16 Worldwide (IFPI) 2
+2021 year-end chart performance for "Dance Monkey" Chart (2021) Position Australia (ARIA) 37 Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40) 62 CIS Airplay (TopHit) 63 Denmark (Tracklisten) 85 France (SNEP) 36 Germany (Official German Charts) 44 Global 200 (Billboard) 22 Hungary (Dance Top 40) 39 Poland (ZPAV) 89 Portugal (AFP) 120 Russia Airplay (TopHit) 146 South Korea (Gaon) 82 Spain (PROMUSICAE) 94 Sweden (Sverigetopplistan) 96 Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade) 35 UK Singles (OCC) 38 Ukraine Airplay (TopHit) 43
+2022 year-end chart performance for "Dance Monkey" Chart (2022) Position Australia (ARIA) 60 CIS Airplay (TopHit) 139 Global 200 (Billboard) 53 Ukraine Airplay (TopHit) 89
+ 2023 year-end chart performance for "Dance Monkey" Chart (2023) Position Belarus Airplay (TopHit) 186 CIS Airplay (TopHit) 183 Romania Airplay (TopHit) 174 Ukraine Airplay (TopHit) 159 + Chart (2025) Position Argentina Anglo Airplay ([Monitor Latino) 76
Decade-end charts +2010s-end chart performance for "Dance Monkey" Chart (2010–2019) Position Australia (ARIA) 76 Australian Artist Singles (ARIA) 10
Certifications
Release history +Release dates for "Dance Monkey"RegionDateFormat(s)LabelVersionAustralia10 May 2019Bad BatchOriginalVarious18 October 2019Stripped Back
See also
List of Airplay 100 number ones of the 2010s List of Airplay 100 number ones of the 2020s List of airplay number-one hits in Argentina List of best-selling singles in Australia List of number-one singles of 2019 (Australia) List of number-one hits of 2019 (Austria) List of Canadian Hot 100 number-one singles of 2019 List of number-one hits of 2019 (Denmark) List of number-one singles of 2019 (Finland) List of number-one hits of 2019 (Germany) List of number-one singles of 2019 (Ireland) List of number-one songs of 2019 (Malaysia) List of number-one singles from the 2010s (New Zealand) List of number-one songs in Norway List of number-one singles of 2019 (Poland) List of number-one songs of 2019 (Singapore) List of number-one singles of the 2010s (Sweden)