PIKOTARO Biography

"PPAP (Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen)" (Japanese: ペンパイナッポーアッポーペン Hepburn: Penpainappōappōpen?) is a single by Pikotaro, a fictional singer-songwriter created and portrayed by Japanese comedian Daimaou Kosaka. It was released as a music video on YouTube on 25 August 2016, and has since become a viral video. As of 7 November 2016, the official video has been viewed over 80 million times, spawned parodies, and being hailed as the new "Gangnam Style". The single itself reached number 2 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart and became the shortest single to chart in the Billboard Hot 100.

Kosaka came up with the song at the house of his producer (actually himself). He was listening to the tune when he picked up a pen to start writing. He thought about his background of being from an apple country, and he also realized that he had an open can of pineapples on the table.

The song is written in the key of C# minor with a common time tempo of 136 beats per minute. Pikotaro's vocals span from F♯3 to C♯5 in the song.

The song originated as a music video released on YouTube on 25 August 2016. In the video, Pikotaro, dressed in a yellow snake/leopard animal print costume, dances around, and then sings English lyrics "I have a pen. I have an apple. Apple pen." while making the gestures of holding the related items and pushing them together. The video's expense was about 100,000 yen.

On 26 September, Pikotaro released a video on how to do the dance and the gestures. On 27 October, Pikotaro posted a "long version" music video of the song.

"PPAP", alongside three other works by Pikotaro, was released to digital storefronts through Avex Music Creative on 7 October 2016. An instrumental version of the song was made available on 12 October 2016.