The most popular Fortnite dances and where they originally came from

The hit battle royale Fortnite is the ultimate crossover game. Whether it’s through skins, emotes, or music, Fortnite continues to do collaborations with different IPs, artists, and content creators. Arguably the most well-known feature of the game is the dance emotes that come from real-life music. Some emotes came from planned collaborations while others were due to popularity on platforms like TikTok. Regardless, here are the most notable dance emotes in Fortnite today and the songs that come along with them.

Blinding Lights

The Blinding Lights emote a dance based on The Weeknd’s hit single of the same name. The song “Blinding Lights” came out in 2019 taking the world by storm, becoming one of the first notable TikTok dance trends. “Blinding Lights” was eventually named Billboard’s Top Billboard Hot 100 Song of All Time after being on the music chart longer than any other song in history.

Don’t Start Now

Don’t Start Now is a hit song by pop artist Dua Lipa. The song while expectedly popular became a popular dance trend on TikTok where the emote is based. “Don’t Start Now “won Favorite Pop/Rock Song at the American Music Awards in 2020. The song is on Dua Lipa’s latest album Future Nostalgia, which won Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2021 Grammys.

Freedom Wheels/Leave the Door Open

“Skate” and “Leave the Door Open” are two songs written by Silk Sonic, a duo group that consists of Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak. Leave the Door Open was the first emote to come after the song was released in 2021. Silk Sonic’s second emote titled Freedom Wheels is from their song called “Skate.” Freedom Wheels is inspired by a dance in the song’s music video, but Leave the Door Open is seemingly original for the game.

Gangnam Style

At one point, “Gangnam Style” was the biggest song in the world, which was quite the achievement by South Korean singer PSY. While “Gangnam Style” was catchy in its own right, what really made the song popular was the dance that PSY created for the music video. The song originally came out in July 2012. By November of the same year, it became the most viewed video on YouTube with over 800 million views. One month later, the “Gangnam Style” music video became the first video on the platform to break one billion views. “Gangnam Style” has held the title of having the number one spot the longest at 1,689 days and remains in the Top 15 most viewed videos on YouTube to this day at 4.4 billion.

I’m Diamond/It’s Dynamite

BTS is the second artist on this list that has multiple dance emotes in Fortnite. However, both dances are from the same song, “Dynamite.” “Dynamite” released back in 2020, quickly becoming a worldwide hit. At the time of release, the song’s music video broke the record for most views for a music video in 24 hours hitting 101 million shattering the previous record by over 15 million. The emotes are based on the Korean boy group’s choreography from the music video.

Pull Up

The Pull Up emote is from DaBabys hit track Rockstar that was released in 2020. Not to get it confused with DaBaby’s other song that’s actually called Pull Up. The emote is directly inspired by the Rockstar TikTok challenges that took over the platform. Rockstar ended up winning Top Rap Song at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards.

Savage

“Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion has a similar rap to the songs already listed. The song came out in 2020, becoming one of the most popular songs in the world to the point where Beyonce came on to do a remix. “Savage” got even more longevity with the rise of TikTok, being a common dance trend on the platform. Naturally, it made its way to Fortnite. Megan Thee Stallion ended up walking away with two Grammys for the song in 2021 for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance.

Say So

Another track that became even more successful thanks to TikTok was “Say So” by Doja Cat. The dance was originally from the “Say So” music video, but it became popular thanks to the social video platform. Despite the major success of the song, Doja Cat did not win any mainstream awards, but she was nominated for several.

Stuck

The fact that “Up” by Cardi B is in Fortnite is a little crazy with the battle royale being marketed towards kids, and the song is, well, not — more than probably any other song on this list. While not Cardi’s most successful song, it became popular on TikTok like many other songs on this list, with the dance being originated on the platform. The same dance is what is used in Fortnite with the Stuck emote having no explicit language, in case you were worried.

Toosie Slide

While in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Drake released a song called “Toosie Slide,” which introduces a pretty simple dance that took the world by storm. Naturally, that very same dance had to make its way to Fortnite. It isn’t the most energetic dance emote in the game, but if you’re a Drake fan, you can’t pass it up.