The #AmaiPhone challenge began after an Amapiano remix of the iPhone ringtone created by @Jashmirsa was turned into a dance challenge created by @matthew_j_power. Currently, #AmaiPhone has had around 1.2 million views and over 600 videos made from it.

Jashen Joel Govindsamy is a Durban-born DJ, producer and content creator. He goes by the stage name of Jshmir SA.

At the age of 21, he is also East Coast Radio (ECR) youngest resident DJ.

Meme videos into catchy songs

Social media recognized his producing talents when he started turning meme videos into catchy songs that had everybody dancing.

Amapiano is best described as a sub-genre of House music with elements of Deep House, Jazz and Kwaito. It's a massively growing genre that was born in the 2010's.

Jashmir used the default iPhone ringtone and mixed this with an Amapiano style of dance which he called: “What if the iPhone ringtone was made in South Africa”.

The song starts with the ring tone and then builds up to a rhythmic dance.

Million views in three days

The challenge had a million views within three days and has moved as far as Namibia, Botswana and the United States (US).

“I was making beats for fun and decided to play around with the iPhone ringtone sample. At that moment I heard a car drive past and they were playing an Amapiano song. Immediately I got the idea of fusing the genre with the famous ringtone and making it a hit dance song,” said Jashmir.

AmaiPhone goes viral

A few days after posting the video on his TikTok page it went viral and caught the attention of TikTok South Africa. The video sharing platform then approached him, created the hashtag “#AmaiPhone ” and then it became an official challenge.

You can watch videos from the challenge here.

#AmaiPhone is not Jashmir’s first viral challenge. He also remixed a viral video into a song and created the #DontDrinkAndDriveChallenge which had about 500 000 views. There are also other remixes over national lockdown, such as #UpliftTheBan.

Jashmir says he is inspired by the joy of bringing people together by making something fun.

“I’m hoping that the #AmaiPhone challenge becomes even bigger and reaches out to more people during these tough times and I will continue making these remixes and putting Chatsworth on the map!”