American Sign Language interpreter Kelly Kurdi went viral after fans gave her props for her interpretation of “WAP” during Megan Thee Stallion’s set at Lollapalooza.
Megan Thee Stallion performed in front of a massive crowd on July 31 in Chicago’s Grant Park with Kurdi at her side. Concertgoer Guilherme Vital Senise da Silva zeroed in Kurdi and filmed her lively interpretation of Cardi B’s second verse on WAP.
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“I decided to record her because I am really a fan of music interpreters,” da Silva told Buzzfeed News. “I’ve [taken] some Brazilian Sign Language classes before, so I was trying to see how she was going to sign every song of that concert.”
The video went viral because viewers were mystified by Kurdi’s dedication. It received over 2.7 million likes on TikTok, and a repost received more than 4 million views on Twitter.
“Why was that more inappropriate than the actual song,” joked one person.
“This made my day lol hopefully, she got a raise after this, wrote another viewer.
“She KNEW the assignment and dare I say…ate it up,” observed a third.
Kurdi eventually got wind of her newfound fame. She shared a message on her Instagram page encouraging people to support the deaf community and follow deaf content creators.
“If you’re new to my page, you’ll quickly see this is a space meant to amplify the work of Deaf creators and to provide access to social media content for the Deaf community. I’m a hearing interpreter, so I do not teach,” she wrote. “In this post, I will direct you to some amazing Deaf ASL teachers, Deaf influencers and other Deaf content creators.“
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She listed several accounts focused on teaching ASL, interpretation, culture and comedic content in the post’s caption.
Kurdi also encouraged her followers to make the world more accessible for deaf people.
“Do your part to make the world more accessible and caption your content! Provide ASL interpreters whenever possible,” she added. “Support deaf creators.”
