"Trafik!" is a song by Finnish rapper

Käärijä Jere Mikael Pöyhönen (; born 21 October 1993), known professionally as Käärijä (), is a Finnish rapper, singer and songwriter. He represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 with the song " Cha Cha Cha", placing second with 526 ...

and Dutch musician

Joost Klein Joost Klein (; born 10 November 1997), also known mononymously as Joost, is a Dutch musician, rapper, singer, and former YouTuber. Mainly a hip hop artist, his songs and performances often include influences of electronic music, such as drum a ...

. The song was released on 12 July 2024 by

Warner Music Finland Warner Music Group (WMG) owns, has a joint share, or is associated with the record labels listed here. Flagship labels *Atlantic Records *Elektra Records *Parlophone Records *Warner Records Atlantic Music Group * 1st & 15th Entertainment * A ...

Background and composition

"Trafik!" was written by Käärijä and Joost Klein alongside Aleksi Nurmi, Johannes "Kiro" Naukkarinen, and Teun de Kruif. The latter of the three also produced the song. The song is described as a summer anthem about being stuck in a traffic jam. It creates an energetic interplay between the two artists, seeming to be a competition "to add the most random sounds until a full-fledged song is created". According to Käärijä, they wrote the song when

and his team had a trip to

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

to meet after Klein sent a message on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

to collaborate.

Release

The song was released on all

music streaming services A music streaming service is a type of online streaming media service that focuses primarily on music, and sometimes other forms of digital audio content such as podcasts. These services are usually subscription-based services allowing users to s ...

on 12 July 2024, with the music video uploaded on Klein's

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel the following day. The music video was directed by Lyon Pol and produced by Whale, while Ezra Xenos was the executive producer. Before the release, the song was performed by Käärijä and Klein at

Ruisrock Ruisrock is a rock festival held annually on the island of Ruissalo in Turku, Finland. Ruisrock, founded in 1970, is the second-oldest rock festival in Europe (after Pinkpop) and the oldest in Finland. The festival has attracted internationa ...

when the latter made a guest appearance.

Reception

Writing for the magazine ''Melomaniacs'', Mandy Huibregtsen stated that the song makes for an "extremely iconic collaboration" between Käärijä and Klein which are "known for their unique style". She added that the song, being only over two minutes, "makes it perfect to put on repeat and just jump around to."

Credits and personnel

* Aleksi Nurmi – composer, arranger, songwriter, producer * Johannes Naukkarinen – composer, arranger, lyricist, producer * Teun de Kruif – composer, arranger, lyricist, producer * Jere Pöyhönen – lyricist, composer *

– lyricist, composer * Kalle Keskikuru – mixing engineer *

Svante Forsbäck Svante Forsbäck (born 1971 in Ekenäs, Finland) is a Finnish mastering and owner of Chartmakers Oy. Henrik Otto Donner's teachings Forsbäck became interested in recording and mixing in the early 1990s, when he went to study in Sweden, and af ...

– mastering engineer

Charts

Release history

References

{{reflist 2024 songs 2024 singles Warner Music Finland singles Songs in Finnish Songs in Dutch Joost Klein songs Käärijä songs Macaronic songs Songs written by Joost Klein Songs written by Käärijä Songs written by Tantu Beats