“Islands in the Stream” is now “We’ve been quarantined.”
A video of an Alabama high school principal singing a spoof of the famous duet by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers with her husband has garnered 1.3 million views on Facebook in less than two days as people laugh along at their light-hearted take on the year of coronavirus.
Gulf Shores High School Principal Cindy Veazey and her husband Jimmy performed their version of the song (originally written by the Bee Gees, but made famous by Kenny and Dolly), poking fun at the coronavirus, face masks, social distancing, zoom calls and virtual school.
The school posted video of the performance on its Facebook page Thursday at 3:32 p.m. and by noon on Saturday, it had surpassed 1 million views.
Veazey told AL.com in a phone interview that she did not expect the clip to go viral like it did. She and her husband performed the song for the Gulf Shores High teachers and faculty on their first day back at school because she felt they needed to lighten the mood.
“Back-to-school is always stressful for teachers and this year especially,” Veazey said. “I said I just need to do something funny and something light because we’re all stressed out.
“If I’d known this was going to happen, I would have practiced more and gotten a better sound system.”
The full video is 3:38 long, but the chorus goes as follows:
“We’ve been quarantined, that is where we’ve been;
social distancing, we can’t see our friends;
stay away from me, if you’re not family
Or we’ll give ‘rona each other, uh huh
Six feet away from each other, uh huh.”
Veazey said she wrote the lyrics late at night after seeing other coronavirus parody videos online. Her husband does not work at the school, but she recruited him to perform the song with her for the teacher orientation.
“I wanted to get a teacher to do this with me, but I told my husband I couldn’t ask anyone on such short notice,” Veazey said. “He’s a team player.”
The verses riff on the Walmart toilet paper shortages, Tiger King, teaching from home, and a subtle reminder that “changing out your PJs really wouldn’t hurt you.”
And in perhaps the truest statement of 2020 so far, “and the message is clear, this could be the year we all go insane.”
*Updated at 5:30 p.m. with comments from Veazey.