As Timothée Chalamet‘s Wonka promo took over everyone’s news feeds in December, so did Jagwar Twin‘s song “Bad Feeling (Oompa Loompa)” on TikTok.
On Friday, the rock star revisited the single, as he released the circus-themed music video for the viral track, which sees the artist inside a Salvador Dalí-inspired circus world as he conveys his message of “trusting your internal compass.”
“The video plays on the theme of trusting your intuition with it being set in this strange Dalí-esque circus that, to me, is often what the world feels like with these games of politics, religion, and psychological warfare,” he tells Rolling Stone of the Ganna Bogdan-directed video. “The visual takes place in this circus and there are a lot of black-and-white checkers that represent the chess game of life.”
“It’s about learning to be kings and queens and not just pawns,” he adds.
The video’s director, who is from Ukraine, used a “Slavic circus concept” as inspiration, and played with surrealism and “glimpses of magic” to convey Twin’s messaging.
Twin expertly released “Bad Feeling (Oompa Loompa),” which samples the original Oompa Loompa song from the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on Dec. 15, the same day as Chalamet’s Wonka. (The film and Twin’s track are not affiliated.) Since then, it has since garnered 40 million plays on Spotify alone, and is currently sitting at No. 24 on Billboard‘s Hot Alternative Songs.
“It has been pretty incredible to see the overnight viral success of the song because it’s fun, it’s funny, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Then there are the deeper levels if you want to go there in lyrics like ‘When the truth is a lie that nobody can tell,’” Twin says. “It’s so cool to see that.”
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“The song is also tuned to a 444hz so,” he adds, “as it goes viral and continues to chart, people are getting blasted with a healing frequency.”
“Bad Feeling (Oompa Loompa)” followed several singles from Twin in 2023, including “Life Is Good” with Angelbaby, “Good Time (1:08)” and “All My Friends.” He dropped album 33 in 2022.