The song and the video
“Burning Bridges” is on Drake's Iceman, released May 15, 2026. The official video was directed and shot by Theo Skudra in the private dining room of Sotto Sotto in Toronto's Yorkville; its second half, from about 1:28 to the end at 3:52, is the handheld party footage the meme uses. The video has passed 25 million views on YouTube.
The moments everyone reuses
- The wave (about 2:58). Cup in one hand, a grin and a wave at the camera — the frame every AI swap keeps, with near-identical beats at 2:42 and 2:56.
- The face cover. Head down, hand over the face, laughing, while the friends around him lose it.
- “Where she at?” The line that became a reaction GIF months before the AI versions.
- The walk-up. Straight into the lens for a deadpan close-up, then he turns away.
How the AI trend took off
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| May 15, 2026 | Drake releases “Burning Bridges” on Iceman, one of three albums out that day, with a video directed and shot by Theo Skudra. The track peaks at No. 13 on the Hot 100. |
| May 16, 2026 | Clips of the party scene spread on TikTok — one fan repost passes 2.7M views; OVO Sound’s own post passes 665K. |
| June 2026 | The “Where she at?” moment is already a widely used GIF before any AI version exists. |
| Sept 19, 2026 | Earliest dated AI self-insert found by Top5Apps: a creator puts themselves into the video with Higgsfield’s Genjutsu. |
| Late Sept – Oct 2026 | Characters move in: Shrek and Fiona, Breaking Bad, the Avengers, Taylor Swift. Daily views on the official video rise about 33% between Sept 29 and Oct 3. |
The comment that sums it up sits near the top of the official video: “The AI videos brought me here.” The replies list the versions people saw — Shrek, Breaking Bad, the Avengers, Taylor Swift.
The Shrek version
The best-known swap puts Shrek in Drake's place and Fiona in the friend's, with Donkey in the background, while everyone else in the room stays human. It is the same shot, frame for frame — the chandelier, the cup, the wave — re-rendered around the characters. Its creator is unknown, and the characters belong to DreamWorks, so we don't host it here.
Make your own
Want yourself (or your dog, or a character you made) in the room? Burning Bridges AI does it from one photo, from $9.99. Here's an original character we made with it:
Prefer to do it by hand? The step-by-step guide covers which part of the video to cut and which tools worked in our tests. Or put yourself in the party →