Songfacts®:

• Released in 2017, this reggae reimagining of the New Orleans classic "Iko Iko," made popular by the girl group the Dixie Cups in 1965, was a long time coming for Justin Wellington. The Papua New Guinean singer was just a kid when he first heard the song playing over the opening credits of the 1988 Tom Cruise movie Rain Man, but he fell in love with it instantly. That version by the British pop-rock band The Belle Stars was first released in 1982, but it has a much longer lineage with its roots in traditional New Orleans music. NOLA native James "Sugar Boy" Crawford wrote an early iteration called "Jock-A-Mo," based on the battle cries of warring tribes of Mardi Gras Indians.
  
  Wellington still doesn't know what the "Jocomo fee no an dan day, Jocomo fee nan nay" chorus means - nobody does for sure - but his interpretation, "Iko Iko (My Bestie)," was built on the song's positive vibe. "I changed the story, I changed the lyrics. I made the story and the feeling of the song how it feels to me, how I've always felt about the song," Wellington told MTV Portugal in 2021.
  
  As a result, a song that was once about rivals became an anthem of friendship. Instead of spyboys (or the Dixie Cups' feisty grandmas) threatening to throw each other's flags in the fire, the group of friends in Wellington's version dance around the flames at their laidback island party:
  
  My bestie and your bestie
  Dancing by the fire
  Your bestie says she want party
  So can we make these flames go higher?
• After performing "Iko Iko" at his shows for years, Wellington decided to record his own version in 2017 with the help of Small Jam, an island reggae band from the Solomon Islands. As with most of his other tunes, he recorded the vocals in his bedroom.
• In 2021, four years after its initial release, "Iko Iko (My Bestie)" went viral when it spawned a dance challenge on TikTok. The Australia-based influencer Nathan Lust came up with the choreography and it spread like wildfire on the platform, with besties teaming up to show off their dance skills with the friendship-themed chorus as their soundtrack.
• After this took social media by storm, it was picked up by RCA Records in the US and reissued as a single in 2021. It swept the charts across the globe, reaching the Top 10 in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, and Poland, among other countries.
• Weighing in on the song's popularity, Wellington told The Jamaica Observer in 2021: "It has a powerful island energy to it that people just love. But also, I believe that there has always been an unmistakable spirit and energy inherent within 'Iko Iko,' irrespective of which version, that people have loved since the beginning. It's a timeless tune."
• Wellington wasn't a newcomer to the music business when he found fame with the island tune. He released his debut album, Much Love, in 2005 and a string of reggae singles before dropping "Iko Iko (My Bestie)" in 2017.
• The song and its accompanying dance also found popularity in the video game realm when it was included on Fortnite Battle Royale in 2017.