Arts and Entertainment

This Alaskan’s re-creation of Beyoncé dance moves went viral – and got her on ‘Ellen’

Last week, Brianna Bundick-Kelly, an Alaskan attending university in Virginia, posted a video on Twitter of herself dancing in sync next to a video of Beyoncé's Coachella performance.

She never expected it to go viral. But as of Thursday, the April 18 video had been viewed 5.35 million times, garnering almost 100,000 retweets and the attention of Ellen DeGeneres.

Reached by phone in Virginia, where she attends college, Bundick-Kelly said that after the video took off, she received an email from one of the producers at "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

"At first I thought it was fake," Bundick-Kelly said. "People will send you anything."

Bundick-Kelly appeared on the show Tuesday to show off the same moves that made her go viral.

Bundick-Kelly was born and raised in Anchorage and graduated from Bartlett High School in 2017. She's currently attending Virginia State University pursuing a degree in computer science. She said taught herself to dance by watching videos.

Bundick-Kelly's social media handle is "Briyonce," a combination of Briana and Beyoncé.

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"I was asking my friends, 'What do you know me as?' And (they said), 'You're the girl that loves Beyoncé,' " said Bundick-Kelly, who's posted a handful of videos recreating Beyoncé's performances.

DeGeneres gave Bundick-Kelly a limited-edition jacket that Beyoncé sold only at Coachella and tickets to see Beyoncé at one of her shows this year.

"You know Ellen gives gifts, but I wasn't expecting a gift, honestly. The jacket, oh that jacket … I've kept it in my closet. I don't want to mess it up, I'm scared," she said.

Asked whether Beyoncé had reached out, Bundick-Kelly said: not yet.

"She's really hard to get a response out of for anything. I wasn't expecting her to see it or tweet me or message me about anything, because she's Beyoncé, that's all I can really say, she's Beyoncé," Bundick-Kelly said. "Hopefully she knows who I am, that'd be really cool."

Samantha Davenport

Samantha Davenport is a former ADN reporter.

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