Meet Jalaiah, the Teen Who Created the Viral Renegade Dance That Took Over TikTok
Jalaiah Harmon, the teenage girl behind the viral Renegade dance on Tik Tok, is finally getting the proper credit and attention for creating one of the most popular crazes on social media right now.
The dance became huge on TikTok through other influencers and even caught the attention of celebrities like Lizzo, James Charles and Kourtney Kardashian. However, prior to the NBA's All-Star weekend, most people had no idea where the dance originated from because Jalaiah never received any recognition.
Then, when the NBA invited several white Tik Tok influencers — including Charli D’Amelio and Addison Easterling — to perform it, the internet was understandably upset that the 14-year-old wasn't invited too.
Following the Twitter backlash, it was revealed that Jalaiah was, in fact, invited and she was going to perform the Renegade dance during Sunday night's (February 16) All-Star Game in Chicago.
K Camp, the rapper who performs the viral song, also tweeted a video thanking Jalaiah for making his track "Lottery" one of the biggest in the world. In it, she and her friend Skylar perform the dance flawlessly.
It turns out, Jalaiah first uploaded the original version of Renegade dance to Instagram in September 2019.
This weekend Jalaiah even met D'Amelio and Rae and taught them the original Renegade choreography.
The Atlanta native also joined Twitter where she thanked everyone for their support. "Reading all of your tweets has been SOOO amazing and I still can’t believe everything that’s happening!!! Who's ready to dance?!" she wrote.
"I NEVER could’ve imagined that dancing in my bathroom at home would have me killing it on half court of the #NBAAllStarGame !!!" Jalaiah wrote in another tweet.