Muammar Gaddafi: Revolutionary, dictator, YouTube star

A remixed dance version of a rambling speech by Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi has gone viral on the internet, and has been broadly embraced by Arab youths at the center of revolutionary movements shaking North Africa. And to add insult to injury for the dictator desperately holding on to power, the viral video was made by an Israeli DJ called Noy Alooshe, 31, a journalist, musician and internet buff.

Alooshe, 31, said he was inspired after seeing the speech, in which Kadhafi made various wild gestures and banged on his podium.

Alooshe told the New York Times that “he saw Colonel Qaddafi’s televised speech last Tuesday in which the Libyan leader vowed to hunt down protesters ‘inch by inch, house by house, home by home, alleyway by alleyway,’ and immediately identified it as a ‘classic’.”

He goes on to explain how he created the clip, “using pitch corrector technology to set the speech to the music of ‘Hey Baby’, a song by the American rapper Pitbull, featuring another artist, T-Pain. Mr. Alooshe titled it “Zenga-Zenga,” echoing Colonel Qaddafi’s repetition of the word zanqa, Arabic for alleyway.”

After promoting it via Twitter and Facebook on Thursday morning and sending it to key figures that he had identified during the ongoing Arab youth uprisings, the clip began to gather steam and go viral.

Alooshe was initially worried about the fact that being an Israeli would negatively impact on how people viewed the music video. But his fears were unfounded, and many Arab youths have sent messages of thanks and encouragement to the DJ. He also got many requests to do a version without the scantily-clad dancer, so “youths could show it to their parents”, which he did.

Ironically, the video is building bridges between cultures. New York Times again: “As one surfer wrote in an Arabic talkback early Sunday, ‘What’s the problem if he’s an Israeli? The video is still funny.’ He signed off with the internationally recognized ‘Hahaha’.”