I'm a Norwegian and I listen to music. Here's why a Norwegian song is storming the global charts.

Even before Erna Solberg earned millions of views by filming herself dancing provocatively to jack ga's 'Bybane Girl', you must have heard the song. Maybe you've strolled to work rapping "Hop to my Paradis/ Fantoft, my heart's soft", or perhaps you couldn't stop yourself belting out the chorus in the shower and/or your nearest karaoke bar. You'll certainly have seen the viral dance routine, either performed by one of the thousands of flash mobs in city centres worldwide or uniting the crowds in a sultry Ibiza club. Unless you've been living underground all year (in fact, even if you've been living underground all year), there's no way you'll have been able to escape 'Bybane Girl'. But what are the secrets behind jack ga's viral smash, and how exactly did a previously unknown Bergen-based musician rack up billions of views across social media platforms?

"I first heard 'Bybane Girl' at a coke-fuelled orgy down at my friend Jared's place," reveals Europop connoisseur Mohammed Bin Salman."Two beats in, half my henchmen had dropped their bone saws [not a euphemism] and hit the dancefloor. 'Bybane Girl' is the perfect mix between cool and carefree. The lyrics have a joyous quality, without ever giving you the impression that the guys on the songwriting team take life too seriously. The track appealed for nostalgic reasons, too. I once had the most fabulous hotdog (as they call them in Bergen) at Brann Stadion, so that "Wergeland to Brann Stadion/ Goal!" line puts a smile on my face every time I rap along to it."

An irresistible beat combined with smart, pun-heavy lyrics may seem like a surefire formula for success, but perhaps the key to the track's virality was the dance routine. "I spent hours mastering it," admitted Norwegian disco virtuoso Jonas Gahr Støre, "The trick lies in really grinding those hips and then quickly dropping low. But I've still got a way to go before I can match Erna. I suppose that her outfit (or lack of outfit) helped..."

jack ga may seem like an overnight success to most international listeners, but a final crucial ingredient is (predictably) years of hard work. jack ground his way through the Bergen circuit for more than a decade before finally hitting the big time, and an exclusive look at the drafts for 'Bybane Girl' proved the song had been rewritten more than a hundred times before jack finally hit on the magic formula. "It's hard for me to forget those nights at Basic Hotel on Håkonsgaten, sitting in my underwear and banging my head repeatedly on the floor as I tore up draft after draft. I needed to get back to my wife and my kids, but I told myself that I couldn't leave until I'd finished. 'Bybane Girl' is, if I'm honest, the product of hundreds of dark nights of my soul."

Perhaps that should be the abiding message: even an instant viral hit is invariably the product of hours and hours of blood, sweat, tears and toil.