Lord of the Dance
WATCH: Dogs Trust Ireland and Fota Wildlife Park take on Jerusalema Challenge
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WATCH: Dogs Trust Ireland and Fota Wildlife Park take on Jerusalema Challenge

STAFF at both Dogs Trust Ireland and Fota Wildlife Park have taken on the hugely popular Jerusalema Challenge.

As you might have expected, plenty of animals feature in both efforts.

A number of excited little pups can be seen bemusedly running around the workers at Dogs Trust, while elephants, tigers and a very flamboyant ostrich take centre stage in Fota's go.

Posting on their Facebook page, Fota Wildlife Park extended the challenge to Dublin Zoo, Tayto Park and Belfast Zoo.

"We hope you enjoy seeing the wildlife park while we are temporarily closed, thanks to everyone who took part," they wrote.

Dogs Trust meanwhile challenged their UK counterparts to take on the viral dance.

The challenge has been sweeping the nation ever since gardaí accepted the challenge from the Swiss police last month.

What is the Jerusalema Challenge?

Simply put, the Jerusalema challenge is a dance.

Those taking up the challenge perform a dance reel to the song Jerusalema, a gospel-influenced house song by South African producer  Master KG and performed by singer-songwriter Nomcebo.

They then upload a video of their dance to social media and tag their friends, family or co-workers to challenge them to do the dance next.

What language is the Jerusalema song in?

While the song is in the Zulu language, it has become popular across the globe-- music is the universal language, after all.

It has reached the number one spot in the charts in multiple European countries including Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland, and sat comfortably in the top 10 of countless other countries.

Who started the Jerusalema Challenge?

The dance trend began in February of last year, when Fenómenos do Semba, a group in Angola, south-west Africa, recorded themselves dancing to the song while eating and without dropping their plates.

The impressive dance started going viral almost immediately, before exploding into the mainstream of the  western world in early 2021-- but most people still copy the moves seen in Fenómenos do Semba's original video.