Ringtone royalty: the rise of the crazy frog

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Rewind to 5 to 11 June 2005 when Crazy Frogs topped the charts, Coldplay went full galaxy-brain and a Chinese spy scandal had Aussie politicians sweating harder than a velour tracksuit in summer.

🕵️‍♂️ Defection drama.Two Chinese officials blew the whistle on a massive spy network operating in Australia. Allegations included intimidation, surveillance and student kidnappings.

📦 Powder panic.White powder scares hit Parliament House and embassies around Canberra. Turns out it wasn’t Anthrax—just another week in early 2000s mail-based chaos.

🔪 Dr. Death exposed.Surgeon Jayant Patel was finally called out after years of botched surgeries and ignored warnings. Murder charges, inquiries and national outrage followed. Paging Nurse Hoffman, the real MVP.

🎾 Nadal’s clay coronation.A 19-year-old Rafael Nadal steamrolled the French Open on debut, while Justine Henin-Hardenne returned to form in a flawless final. Pirate pants = power, apparently.

🐸 Crazy frog domination.Axel F hit #1 and brought chaos to every Nokia in existence. It started as a ringtone. It ended marriages. Arguably the most cursed bop of the decade.

💿 Coldplay gets cosmic.X&Y dropped and Coldplay went synthy, moody and full existential crisis. “Fix You” had us weeping. “Speed of Sound” had us... confused but intrigued.

🎬 Welcome to the jungle.Madagascar hit cinemas, gave us dancing lemurs, neurotic lions and reminded everyone that escape from New York doesn’t end at JFK.

🎮 Games gone wild.California kicked off its crusade against violent video games. Gamers raged, Arnie approved and the Supreme Court eventually said “nah.”

📺 CNN turns 25.The news network that changed everything took a victory lap with highlight reels and archival gold. Shoutout to the OG anchor couple David and Lois.

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