You might already be yelling a classic Swedish bar anthem at full volume without knowing it. The chant powering NEXZ’s high-energy B-side HYPEMAN is actually Helan Gar, a traditional drinking song that has quietly become the most unexpected Helan Gar K-pop song moment of 2026.
The twist started with Rosé and Bruno Mars’ hit APT., which turned a Korean drinking-game chant into a global hook. Swedish producers saw that success and asked a wild question: if a Korean party chant could rule playlists, what would happen if Sweden’s own bar anthem entered the K-pop chat?
The K-pop hit hiding a Swedish drinking song
NEXZ, JYP Entertainment’s rookie boy group, dropped HYPEMAN on their second single album Mmchk, which moved about 444,000 copies in its first week. On the surface it is an upbeat, almost hyperpop dance track with an easy, shoutable hook. Underneath, its main melody is lifted from Helan Gar.
In Sweden, Helan Gar is an old drinking song traditionally sung right before a shot of snaps, especially at midsummer parties, student gatherings, and holiday dinners. Swedish coverage and K-pop timelines confirmed that songwriters Ludwig Lindell, Adrian Enegard, and Hugo Andersson reworked that tune for HYPEMAN. Andersson told broadcaster SVT they created a “very chaotic Korean version” and called K-pop “a huge market” where writers can try “all kinds of different songs.”
Andersson has also noted that most listeners will never realize they are hearing a Swedish melody. For Korean and global fans, it simply lands as another addictive K-pop chant. For Swedes, it is a cultural in-joke hiding in plain sight.
From APT. to HYPEMAN: party chants go global
Before Sweden entered the chat, APT. had already shown how far a drinking chant could travel. The Rosé and Bruno Mars single built its hook around a phrase from Korea’s “apartment” drinking game. According to coverage, millions of listeners worldwide sang along without fully knowing what it meant, and the track went on to Grammy nomination territory.
Watching that happen, Lindell, Enegard, and Andersson wondered what a Swedish equivalent might sound like inside K-pop. Their answer was to flip Helan Gar into a bright, chant-heavy chorus that JYP later handed to NEXZ, with members Yuki and Tomoya writing the Korean lyrics.
Music critic Lim Hee-yun explains that this kind of crossover is baked into how K-pop is made. Many tracks are born at multinational songwriting camps where people toss around melodies and cultural references “almost as if they’re playing.” Swedish writers have been in that mix for years, including on Red Velvet’s Red Flavor, whose famous hook reportedly started as a random “weh weh weh” sound someone made while eating cereal.
What Helan Gar x K-pop reveals about global fandom
Lim points out that both Sweden’s singalong traditions, from drinking songs to dansband, and K-pop put a premium on energy, participation, and instantly memorable hooks. That is why a bar chant like Helan Gar can slide so smoothly into a stadium-ready chorus like HYPEMAN.
Culture critic Hwang Jin-mee notes that borrowing and sampling have always been part of pop, and K-pop in particular. First generation idols pulled in Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” for H.O.T’s Hope and Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” for Shinhwa’s T.O.P.. More recently, Meovv’s Ddi Ro Ri has echoed Bach, while Le Sserafim’s Boompala openly samples 90s dance hit “Macarena.”
What feels new is the scale and intimacy. APT. had global listeners chanting a Korean drinking game. HYPEMAN now has them roaring along to a Swedish snaps song they do not recognize. As K-pop keeps “taking in a bit of everything,” in Hwang’s words, fan chants, playlists, and edits are turning into living mashups of Korean, English, Swedish, and beyond, with more hidden folk tunes and party anthems likely waiting inside the next comeback.