Popular singer claims his tune “Dynamite” is actually a Christmas jingle.

Over the past few weeks, there has been a buzz around YU about a certain YouTube video: the music video of the Maccabeats’ “Candlelight,” a Chanukah parody of Taio Cruz’s popular “Dynamite.” The video has been discussed several million times in the past fortnight. Many Stern girls have noted how “clever” and “cute” it is, obviously ignorant of what those words actually mean, while most guys on the YU campus find the awkward dancing and smiling completely nauseating. Yet the video has somehow managed to attain over 2 million viewers. One junior noted, “It’s like watching something so horrifying that you can’t look away. Kind of like The View.”

The video, which has gone viral, has been featured on the Today Show and is making an appeal to be on the Colbert Report, becoming one of the most famous products from YU since the Rav. But there is one person who is not happy with the Maccabeats’ new video. Rapper Taio Cruz, who filed a five million dollar lawsuit against the Maccabeats last Friday, feels that “Candlelight” is a disgrace. Cruz stated, “They took a perfectly good Christmas song and turned it into a Chanukah song. Just listen to the lyrics of ‘Dynamite’ and you can see the religious significance behind it. ‘I wanna celebrate [Christmas] and live my life [as a devoted Christian]. Sayin’ ay-oh, baby [Jesus] let’s go.’” Cruz’s Christmas message comes as a shock to most people. One music listener stated, “I really thought the song was all about partying and going to clubs. This changes everything.”

Most authorities in the areas of copyright law and music that we have spoken have held up Mr. Cruz’s right to file the suit against the Maccabeats, but they also expressed some degree of negative feelings about the massive amount of money the group of college kids may be forced to come up with should they lose the case.

New York City clubs have, for the most part, decided to continue playing “Dynamite” despite its recently revealed religious connotations. This decision stems from their belief that people listening to the music in their clubs either haven’t heard anything about the song’s Christian themes or are too drunk to notice what song they are listening to. Of the few clubs that have taken the song off their playlists, the reasons were mostly religious in nature. Some Jewish club owners have expressed interest in contacting the Maccabeats and getting permission to play “Candlelight” in “Dynamite”’s stead.

Other YU students expressed shock that a celebrity with Cruz’s level of fame should care about the actions of a few yeshiva guys and vocally protested the lawsuit. Amy Steinfeld, captain of Stern’s soccer team, expressed Beren Campus’s dismay: “It’s unbelievable over here. Girls are tearing their clothes in mourning. Some are just wandering about in a daze, unsure of who they are or where they are going.”

A particular concern to most of the Stern girls seems to be their worry that, if the Maccabeats lose the case, they will be too poor to take girls out on dates. This view was expressed to The Quipster by no less than 247 girls in our straw poll.

The Maccabeats themselves have not publicly commented on Cruz’s impending lawsuit. They are still living in the euphoria of their stardom. One Maccabeat noted that, when he walked by Brookdale lounge last week, each girl had thrown her Tehillim at him, their phone numbers inscribed on the inside cover. Another Maccabeat who asked to be left unnamed confided to us that the group wasn’t at all worried about the five million dollar lawsuit leveled against them, saying, “We really have nothing to worry about. The sales of the song on iTunes alone netted us a total of 13.4 billion dollars.” Rumors have spread of competitions in Stern set on discovering who loved the Maccabeats most by having participants repeatedly buy “Candlelight” on iTunes, yet their truth has not as of yet been verified.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit has done nothing at all to lower the Maccabeats’ fame or popularity. Last week, Matisyahu opened the YU Chanukah concert for them. Oh yeah, and Moshav Band played too. Witnesses of the event said that there were many Stern girls awkwardly shrieking as well as holding up signs that said: “I’m your Bashert.” The publicity can only be considered one thing for the acappella group: Dynamite.