duDudu

duDudu is Twitch's visual shorthand for Darude's 1999 electronic track `Sandstorm`. The sandy spiral makes the song title literal, while the command imitates the rapid `du-du-du` sound people use for the track's instantly recognizable synth hook.

Twitch was already leaning into the joke in January 2015, when a Twitch Weekly post about its music rollout teased viewers with `DUDUDUDUDU`. Darude then performed at the first TwitchCon party later that year, and Twitch's 2016 TwitchCon announcement called him the "duDudu DJ himself." The emote sits inside the same gaming culture that turned `Darude - Sandstorm` into the stock answer whenever somebody asked what song was playing.

Viewers type duDudu in Twitch chat when Sandstorm is playing, when a driving electronic beat kicks in, or when chat is making the old song-identification joke and wants the sandy swirl to carry the reference.