The 36-year journey of the Orlando Magic’s victory song
After logging 42 minutes in a commanding 98-74 victory over the Orlando Magic last March, New York Knicks guard Josh Hart sat at his Madison Square Garden locker, catching his breath and reflecting on the night.
The victory snapped Orlando’s five-game win streak. But, equally important — if not more so — to Hart, it denied the Magic’s attempt at fulfilling a ritual.
Since November 2023, Orlando has celebrated each victory with a social media video, often teasing fans with a “you want to hear the song?” post first. The final score graphic is paired with an up-tempo catchy chorus that goes, “Orlando Magic, Orlando Magic, Orlando Magic, oh, oh, oh, ohhhhhh.”
Hart didn’t shy away from expressing his pleasure about making it disappear, at least for that night. When asked about the importance of defeating the Magic, it didn’t take him long to explain.
“It was so important because I didn’t want to see Orlando Magic post on TikTok [of] their song with some cows dancing,” he said.
Josh Hart says it was important for the Knicks to win tonight so he wouldn’t see the Magic post a TikTok with the dancing cows 😂
Stay tuned for Josh’s rendition of the Orlando Magic song 🎤 pic.twitter.com/EFHfWSPo9M
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) March 9, 2024
Though Hart called the song “a banger,” Orlando didn’t forget what motivated him.
When the Magic defeated the Knicks on Jan. 6, they posted a clip of Hart’s comments. As the song’s beat dropped, cows danced in the background.
It’s just one example of how Orlando’s post-win song has turned into a social media phenomenon, bringing new fans for a young, rising team.
According to data provided by the Magic to ESPN, as of Jan. 13, they have published the song 700 times on TikTok. It has led to 174 million impressions and 154 million video views — 66 million of which have come on the “For You” page.
The posts have reached momentous heights due to a catchy spin on a track that served as the Magic’s original theme song in 1989.
“It’s a really cool tradition …” Magic guard Jalen Suggs told ESPN. “In a serious game, and at points and time a serious season, you [can] allow yourself to let go a bit, you know, kind of have fun, smile and just enjoy the song.”
Ahead of its first season in 1989, Orlando worked with Gettings Production on a track for the player introductions video and on-court dance performances. Glenn Gettings wrote the song then found a local performer from Disney to sing it.
The performer from the original song is the voice behind the catchy: “Orlando Magic, oh, oh, ohhhhhh.” They also sing a two-line verse that includes: “Abracadabra, razzamatazz. Slam Dunk sesame,” then finish the rhyme with “Hocus pocus, alakazam/Gonna set the spirit free.”
“It feels very 80s,” Shelly Wilkes, Orlando’s executive vice president of marketing and social responsibility, told ESPN. “And for some reason, it has just taken off.”
At some point, they stopped utilizing the song in the arena. Staff members every now and then would lobby for its return, but the answer was always no, according to Wilkes.
Fans didn’t forget about it, either. In November 2021, ESPN’s Kevin Clark posted a clip of a live performance of the song. Clark expressed that the track didn’t receive enough appreciation.
It quickly went viral. Within an hour, the Magic’s X page reposted it, writing: “1000 RT and we’ll play this during tomorrow’s game.” No more than 20 minutes later, the post surpassed that mark.
1000 RT and we’ll play this during tomorrow’s game https://t.co/WWjqHV3AG9
— Orlando Magic (@OrlandoMagic) November 12, 2021
Orlando played it in its next home game and the song started to gain more traction on social media. In her 20 years with the franchise, Wilkes said it hadn’t used the song any time prior to that night.
In January 2022, the Magic began posting different variations on social media around “play that song” or “hit the music.” Orlando didn’t use it in a post-victory meme format until December 2022 after defeating the Atlanta Hawks. The song was featured on TikTok with a graphic of the score and video in the back.
Everything changed during the 2023-24 season. On Nov. 2, 2023, the Magic began posting it regularly and it took off.
“It gained so much traction because they were so silly, really,” Wilkes said.
The first victory post of the 2023-24 season included a clip of streamer Kai Cenat dancing with the theme song playing in the background.
It was a result of the Magic’s hard work in the offseason.
Seven social content creators do the bulk of the work on the post-win edits. Leading up to the 2023 season, the Magic’s social media content creation team began stocking up on viral videos. It resulted in a shared folder of content the team relies on after each win.
“They’re seeing everything that’s out there and they’re just clipping out this content that’s going viral or that they think is funny or that can have some sort of relationship to the opposing team or other cultural conversations,” Wilkes said.
Members of the team will pitch a video idea and put it together ahead of an upcoming game. The team will go through that library of videos to prepare, but — based on how the game is going — can make adjustments. That night’s opponent often dictates the direction of the video, too.
The Toronto Raptors were the target of a video that included someone failing to open a bottle of champagne, followed by an impersonator of Canadian rapper Drake.
TURN ME UP https://t.co/Ncly9XTYbr pic.twitter.com/2e6vaLnI7y
— Orlando Magic (@OrlandoMagic) January 4, 2025
“When I say I’m a little too old to find these videos even,” Wilkes joked. “Some of them I’m like, ‘What is even happening?’ But they always make you laugh, and I think part of it is the edit. They always find the beat drop to make something crazy happen in the edit.”
Memes aside, the track has remained a constant, though it has evolved through several versions since Orlando reintroduced it.
The franchise partnered with Grammy-award winner Ayo the Producer ahead of the 2023-24 season. Ayo added a beat in the back that remained throughout the campaign. This season, after looking at different remixes of the song, Orlando opted to go back to the original version.
Wilkes explained they thought the original made the most sense. She did reveal the team is working on a Brazilian remix for the Magic’s Portuguese language accounts.
What made the posts take off last season is simple: Orlando kept winning. More wins, 47 regular-season ones to be exact, meant more opportunities for fans to have “oh, oh, ohhhhhh” stuck in their head.
“It’s an easy thing to be in support of, especially after a win. It doesn’t matter, regular season or playoffs [it’s] just the energy that it brings in itself,” Suggs said.
Taking inspiration from the Sacramento Kings’ “light the beam” phenomenon of the 2022-23 season, Wilkes and her team sought to create their own victory tradition that would bridge the gap between social media and the in-arena experience. By February 2024, they had developed their answer: Bringing players and fans together through post-win video reveals on the court.
That reveal is then turned into its own social post, creating a celebration that connects players directly with fans both in-person and online.
YEAAA DELL PLAY THE SONG pic.twitter.com/Z41YrbNNbI
— Orlando Magic (@OrlandoMagic) November 28, 2024
The tradition of players like Suggs, Wendell Carter Jr., and Tristan da Silva hopping to a board amid “play the song” chants has spread beyond Orlando, with even the Buffalo Bills and Italian soccer giants Juventus adopting the melody for their own social media posts.
Suggs called it something that connects players and fans alike.
“To understand that you’ve come out tonight and handled business, you get to leave the court with a win. Then, in unison, we can all not only celebrate the dub [or] celebrate the song but celebrate being one unit, one sound,” he said.
As it has grown, players are more aware.
A month prior to Hart’s comments, his teammate, Jalen Brunson, gave credit to the Magic social team.
Gotta give credit to the magic social team. Every time I open TikTok I hear “Orlando magic oooooooooooooo” literally every single time
— Jalen Brunson (@jalenbrunson1) February 15, 2024
Even after Hart jokingly said he hoped to avoid being featured, he revealed his own obsession with the song.
*Opens TikTok, Goes to Orlando Magic Page*
— Josh Hart (@joshhart) May 4, 2024
“Getting that kind of reaction and popularity is really cool for us and it helps us celebrate those wins,” Wilkes said. “It makes our wins an even bigger deal for the players and the team, right? Because it’s getting this extra attention around winning.”
For opposing players though, the earworm isn’t a good thing. No matter how catchy, it’s not as fun being on the receiving end of it. The song could serve as enough motivation to get the victory and not hear it — just like it did for Hart.
Suggs believes otherwise. The magic is too strong to ignore.
“It’s just a cool thing, like when you hear a good beat wherever [you are], how can you not nod your head?” Suggs said. “They found a great beat, good words behind it and it’s Orlando Magic; it is us … so how can you not love and support it?”
Suggs and Orlando’s next chance to hear their theme song could be after their Friday night matchup against the Boston Celtics at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Source: espn.com