In July, Ella Mai’s 2017 single “Boo’d Up” peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 after entering the chart more than a year after its release. The ubiquitous hit remains a mainstay in the Top 10, and was recently given new twist when a fifth grade teacher at Tampa’s Oak Park Elementary School was looking for a way to encourage her students to read.
While listening to the radio with her students one day, Sheena Howell used the song as an inspiration to write a new version called “Booked Up.” From there, Howell instructed her students to memorize the lyrics at home. The next day, Howell and her students recorded a video of them performing the song which has since gone viral with over 50,000 Facebook views. Watch it here.
“I started singing, ‘Reading, so deep in my reading,’” Howell told Tampa’s ABC Action News. “And I said, ‘Ooh, we’re going to write a song.’”
On “Booked Up,” Howell and her students sing about their love for reading and writing:
Oh how, how many ways can I say I need to read, it’s true
I won’t be as smart without you
Writing all over my paper
You know I love to write
I have to tell my pencil what to do
In contrast, Ella Mai sings about being infatuated with someone special:
Oh how, how many ways can I say that I need you, baby, it’s true
I think I might die without you
Feeling all over my body
You know how I like it
Ain’t gotta tell you what to do, yeah yeah
In addition, Howell and her students flip the chorus to reflect the topic of the song:
Listen to my heart go ba-dum, booked up
Biddy-da-dum, booked up up
Hear my heart go ba-dum, booked up
Biddy-da-dum it just won’t stop, it go
As reported by ABC Action News, Oak Park Elementary is a low-performing school, but hopefully creative teachers like Howell will help turn things around.
Ella Mai previously broke down the lyrics to “Boo’d Up” in an episode of Verified:
Read all the lyrics to Ella Mai’s “Boo’d Up” on Genius now.
