The Norfolk, VA Police Department won the internet Tuesday as it rocked the growing police department lip sync challenge with a Cecil B. DeMille production of Uptown Funk. Overnight, the video went viral with over 17 million views. (Video)

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The Norfolk, VA Police Department won the internet Tuesday as it rocked the lip sync challenge with a Cecil B. DeMille production of Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk. The video, posted late Monday, went viral, garnering over 17 million views by Tuesday afternoon. (Update: Views hit 24 million by midnight, Tuesday, 40M views by Thurs.and 50M views by midnight, Friday.)

The Norfolk Police Department was challenged by Texas' Corinth Police Department, who offered their lip-sync version of Miley Cyrus' Party in the USA. The Corinth PD also challenged the Lake Dallas and the Little Elm Police Departments.

The viral Police Department lip-sync challenges started with a video of Texas sheriff deputy Alexander Mena, lip syncing to Fuiste Malaby the Kumbia Kings. ABC News noted that his department posted it on June 19, and other Texas police departments took it as a challenge, responding in kind.

Norfolk's Officer Daniel Hudson directed and produced the Uptown Funk parody video. He said that it wasn't until Friday, July 6th, that ideas began to percolate when he and partner, Officer Jo Ann Hughes, began to brainstorm a plan. Hughes, aka the Silver Fox, can be seen rocking out to the right of the lead dancer, Officer Christopher Taveras. Completing the front row trio is Officer Will Pickering at left.

Later in the video Officer Daniel Shelton can be seen dancing with his infant daughter. Shelton was babysitting and came in on his day off to participate in the video.

Hudson said that they worked on blocking on Friday, and on Monday morning did one rehearsal with their five core dancers, which included Officer Kyle Boone and Officer Hakima King along with Hughes, Pickering and Taveras.

By noon, they were ready to film, and did it in one take. Now, there's a lunch hour put to good use -- after this, Norfolk's police may be moonlighting as Broadway dancers!

Hudson said that they were all surprised at the immediate response, as he agreed that the perception of police has been a sticky area lately. "We have been so touched by the overwhelming response of love. Everybody (in the video) did a phenomenal job ... it's hard to put in words what it did to us as a department... people often only see us as enforcers, this gave us the opportunity to showcase our individuality, and to show that we can have fun."

Viral fun! During the hour it took me to write this article, they racked up another million views - what a wonderful example of the healing power of the arts!

The Norfolk Police Department has, in turn, challenged the Seattle Police Department, the Norfolk Constabulary, the Virginia Beach Police Department, and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

# NorfolkPD # lipsync

Authors Website: http://www.OceanViewArts.com

Authors Bio:

Meryl Ann Butler is an artist, author, educator and OpedNews Managing Editor who has been actively engaged in utilizing the arts as stepping-stones toward joy-filled wellbeing since she was a hippie. She began writing for OpEdNews in Feb, 2004. She became a Senior Editor in August 2012 and Managing Editor in January, 2013. In June, 2015, the combined views on her articles, diaries and quick link contributions topped one million. She was particularly happy that her article about Bree Newsome removing the Confederate flag was the one that put her past the million mark.

Her art in a wide variety of media can be seen on her YouTube video, "Visionary Artist Meryl Ann Butler on Creativity and Joy" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGs2r_66QE

A NYC native, her response to 9-11 was to pen an invitation to healing through creativity, entitled, "90-Minute Quilts: 15+ Projects You Can Stitch in an Afternoon" (Krause 2006), which is a bestseller in the craft field. The sequel, MORE 90-Minute Quilts: 20+ Quick and Easy Projects With Triangles and Squares was released in April, 2011. Her popular video, How to Stitch a Quilt in 90 Minutes with Meryl Ann Butler can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrShGOQaJQ8

She has been active in a number of international, arts-related projects as a citizen diplomat, and was arts advisor to Baltimore's CIUSSR (Center for Improving US-Soviet Relations), 1987-89. She made two trips to the former USSR in 1987 and 1988 to speak to artists, craftpeople and fashion designers on the topic of utilizing the arts as a tool for global wellbeing. She created the historical "First US-Soviet Children's Peace Quilt Exchange Project" in 1987-88, which was the first time a reciprocal quilt was given to the US from the former USSR.

Her artwork is in collections across the globe.

Meryl Ann is a founding member of The Labyrinth Society and has been building labyrinths since 1992. She publishes an annual article about the topic on OpEdNews on World Labyrinth Day, the first Saturday in May.

OpEdNews Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in "Beyond Surviving: How to Thrive in Challenging Times" at https://www.opednews.com/articles/Beyond-Surviving--How-to-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Anxiety_Appreciation_Coronavirus_Creativity-200318-988.html

Find out more about Meryl Ann's artistic life in "OEN Managing Ed, Meryl Ann Butler, Featured on the Other Side of the Byline" at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/OEN-Managing-Ed-Meryl-Ann-in-Life_Arts-Artistic_Artists_Quilt-170917-615.html

On Feb 11, 2017, Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in Pink Power: Sister March, Norfolk, VA at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Pink-Power-Sister-March--by-Joan-Brunwasser-Pussy-Hats-170212-681.html

"Creativity and Healing: The Work of Meryl Ann Butler" by Burl Hall is at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Creativity-and-Healing--T-by-Burl-Hall-130414-18.html

Burl and Merry Hall interviewed Meryl Ann on their BlogTalk radio show, "Envision This," at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/envision-this/2013/04/11/meryl-ann-butler-art-as-a-medicine-for-the-soul

Archived articles www.opednews.com/author/author1820.html
Older archived articles, from before May 2005 are here.