Bubbling Baby (2025)

Tonight Caribbean Creativity , in collaboration with Africadelic , presents a special screening of Bubbling Baby in our Cinema! Bubbling Baby is a new short documentary by Sharine Rijsenburg that explores the origins, evolution and impact of bubbling, the energetic music and dance genre that emerged in the 80s within Caribbean-Dutch communities, combining dancehall, reggae and electronic beats. With an introduction, performance and discussion!

Bubbling Baby (2025, 19') is a short documentary by Sharine Rijsenburg about the rich history and cultural significance of bubbling music, a genre that emerged in the 1980s within the Caribbean-Dutch communities, particularly among Surinamese and Antillean youth in Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam. DJ Moortje, a Caribbean-Dutch DJ of Curaçaoan descent, is often considered the pioneer of bubbling. In 1986, he accidentally played a dancehall record at a fast tempo in a club in Rotterdam. Instead of stopping the music, the audience responded enthusiastically and a new dance style with fast, jerky movements developed that became synonymous with bubbling.

The energetic sound was quickly picked up by other DJs, who further expanded the style by combining dancehall, reggae, and Surinamese and Antillean rhythms. To make the sound even more unique, DJs started remixing Jamaican dancehall with electronic beats. Bubbling grew into more than just a music genre; it became a dance move that resembled dancehall, but was faster and more expressive. Above all, bubbling became a way for Surinamese and Caribbean Dutch youth in the Netherlands to express their cultural identity in a new social environment. Bubbling Baby delves into the origins of the genre and its evolution into a dynamic movement within club music and dance culture.

The film premiered last February at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2025.

[Source (Original or ML Translation): Melkweg]