Cupid Talks About New Line Dancing Social Media Era & Teases Upcoming Music Collabs

The one and only line dance king!

If you’ve been dancing to ‘Flex’ for the past few years, then trust us, you are not alone. Creator of ‘The Cupid Shuffle’, Louisiana’s beloved music artist Cupid has been churning out dance hits for well over a decade.

We had the absolute pleasure of speaking with Cupid about Grammy goal, retirement from line dancing, and more!

Thanks to TikTok, there’s been a brand new era and appreciation of line dancing, with thousands of people hopping on the latest dances and making the genre even more widespread. What has been your reaction to line dancing’s newly found fame?

C: “I’m super excited. Super excited. I mean, that’s what I’ve been pushing for for years, to unify people through music and to see all these genres and people coming together-Line dancing doesn’t really have a color, it’s not a genre, it is it’s own kind of thing. So, it’s awesome.

Start off with something simple. I do a lot of beginner ones. ‘Cupid Shuffle’, ‘Flex’, ‘Do It With Your Boots On’, ‘Pop That Fan’, ‘The Cookout’. Mines are what you would consider to be beginner. Start of there. Then once you get that coordination you can take on ‘Boots on the Ground’ and the ‘Tamia’.”

The landmark line dance ‘The Cupid Shuffle’ came out 2007, and your newer releases have continued to make you a household name. Did you know that you were going to have this level of longevity?

C: “Maybe about five or years years after ‘The Cupid Shuffle’ was released, we just noticed that the streaming was going up. It would go up every year and I think it’s because the newer generations have grabbed on to it. Everyone has a moment when they learn Cupid shuffle. People go back to that moment and it’s just a continuation, they want to rekindle that same energy. So after year five I knew that it was something serious.

And after I made ‘Flex’, with the emerges of TikTok and Instagram, once I saw that there was an app that specifically targets dancing, I was like “It’s over”.”

One of the many newcomers in line dancing is 803 Fresh, who has released a viral song ‘Boots On The Ground’. What has been your reaction to all of these new artists going the genre?

C: “What’s amazing about that is that because 803 Fresh is blowing up so big, and all of these other artists are, it’s now making line dancing a thing. When it was just me, it was looked at like “Oh, that’s just was Cupid does” and that’s it. But having other artists stand on it and put out new line dances is now making it into a genre, which will hopefully lead to a tour, which will ultimately lead to a Grammy category, and so many other things because there’s power in numbers. So I’m excited about that and I just hope that more artists continue to come in and do their due diligence in the line dance world.”

Speaking of expansion, would you be open to collaborating with fellow giants from other genres , like hip hop or pop, in order to take line dancing to the next level? 

C: “What’s funny is I have two new features that are coming out really soon, with two major artists. They contrast each other really well. I don’t really have a boundary. I think that anyone who wants to dabble into that world, I’m totally cool about it because the coolest thing about line dancing is that you can have different types of music represent the line dance culture. So, we can go slow R&B we can go Pop, we can go hip hop, we can go in any direction. Anybody who wants to work, I’m all about it.”

Would you ever consider leaving the line dancing world?

C: “I wouldn’t say leave. Of course, if I get asked to do something on the R&B side, it would basically just be me using my diversity, using my ability to do other things. I will probably always be known for line dancing and I’ve completely accepted that, but I would love, love, love to be featured on a R&B record, even a Hip Hop record where I could do hooks and stuff. I do that a lot and none of them have really blown up, but hopefully the feature that I have coming up with one R&B artist in particular will really open that door.”

Make sure to check out Cupid on IG (@officialnewcupid) to be updated on his upcoming music releases and events!

Photo Credit: JD Mosley/Mosley Media

Je’Kayla Crawford– Founder and Director– Je’Kayla has been a journalist for years and decided to start a publication of her own, New Scene Magazine, back in October 2020. When not helping her team and working on their print issues, you can find her watching a movie on Netflix or baking using a viral TikTok recipe.