Málúù Dúddú: the ox tune that became a Folkmedia phenomenon on the internet

Abstract

In addition to reinforcing and defending the traditional knowledge and cultural richness of the Amazonian peoples through its written and scenic plot, the Boi-Bumbá festival of Parintins presents to the public a diversity of languages (images and symbols) representative of the Amazonian riverside and ancestry. All of this is transformed into an artistic spectacle for the contemplation of the present and absent public, because the popular festival of Parintins has become a market product, which we will call Folkmediatic, based on the theoretical assumptions of Folkcommunication. All these elements are communicational clues that the festival uses so that everyone can capture (or even be transported) to the essence of Amazonian culture. Naturally, the cloth ox is the greatest icon of the party and host of the show, but the greatest communicational link between all these language signs is the toada de boi, a genuinely Amazonian rhythm created to lead and set the temperature of the Boi-Bumbá party. In this article, we highlight the tune Málúù Dúddú, by Boi Caprichoso, which in 2024 gained a notable prominence during and after the festival, going viral (as a folkmedia phenomenon) on the internet with a record of more than 1 million hits in just four months. In order to present the symbolic potential (artistic and social) of this tune, we used in this brief qualitative incursion, the folkcommunicational perspective and the method of Discourse Analysis (in the light of Michail Bakhtin), also considering the composer's vision, through in-depth interviews.