"Bom Bom" is a song by the British-Dutch three-piece music group

Sam and the Womp Sam and the Womp are a British pop group consisting of trumpeter Sam Ritchie and Dutch-born vocalist Bloem de Ligny, also known as Lady Oo. The band's music mixes traditional elements of Balkan music with modern dub and drum 'n' bass elements ...

. The track was first released in the United Kingdom on 19 August 2012. The song debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart with 107,461 copies sold in its first week. "Bom Bom" was co-produced by Sam Ritchie, Aaron Horn and Raz Olsher at Fossil Studios in

Hackney, London Hackney is a district in East London, England, forming around two-thirds of the area of the modern London Borough of Hackney, to which it gives its name. It is 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Charing Cross and includes part of the Queen ...

Music video

A music video to accompany the release of "Bom Bom" was first released onto

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

on 3 August 2012 at a total length of two minutes and 55 seconds.

Reception

Critical reception

Lewis Corner of ''

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...

'' awarded the song three out of five stars, stating: " Lady Oo sing-speaks over an earworm hook of

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductors * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic c ...

reverb In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then decay as the sound is a ...

and bouncy

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

that's as bonkers as it is addictive. While parts of the track may sound like

Basil Brush Basil Brush is a fictional fox best known for his appearances on daytime British children's television. He is primarily portrayed by a glove puppet, but has also been depicted in animated cartoon shorts, books, annuals and comic strips. The char ...

attempting his best

Björk Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct voice, three-octave vocal range, and eccentric public per ...

impression at the staff BBQ, it results in a bizarrely catchy tune that we'll all pretend isn't on our

iPod The iPod is a series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices that were designed and marketed by Apple Inc. from 2001 to 2022. The iPod Classic#1st generation, first version was released on November 10, 2001, about mon ...

s for years to come."

Chart performance

In the chart week dated 1 September 2012, "Bom Bom" debuted at number-one on the UK Singles Chart with 107,461 copies sold. For that same charting week, the track also debuted at number-one on the

UK Dance Chart The Dance Singles Chart and the Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the electronic dance music, dance music genre (e.g. house music, house, trance music, trance, ...

. The song sold 372,000 copies by the end of 2012 making it the 42nd best-selling single of the year.

Usage in media

In the United States, the song was used in the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

television series ''

Elementary Elementary may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Elementary'' (Cindy Morgan album), 2001 * ''Elementary'' (The End album), 2007 * ''Elementary'', a Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin album, 1977 Other uses in arts, entertainment, an ...

'' where it was used in an opening scene from the episode "The Deductionist" in 2013. It also appears two times in the 2013 animated film ''

Escape from Planet Earth ''Escape from Planet Earth'' is a 2013 animated comedy-adventure science fiction film produced by Rainmaker Entertainment (now Mainframe Studios) and distributed by The Weinstein Company in the United States and Entertainment One in Canada, ...

''. In addition, it is in the official soundtrack of the 2012

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

game ''

Forza Horizon ''Forza Horizon'' is a 2012 racing video game developed by Playground Games and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 on 23 October 2012. The game is the first installment of the ''Forza'' series, having originally spin-off from Turn ...

'', and was used in promotional material for the MTV series ''

Geordie Shore ''Geordie Shore'' is an English reality television series that has been broadcast on MTV UK from 24 May 2011. Based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, it was the British offshoot of the American show ''Jersey Shore''. The programme follows the d ...

''. In 2013, it featured in TV commercials for

Kmart Australia Kmart Australia Limited ( , doing business as Kmart, Kmart Australia, Kmart New Zealand and Kmart Australia and New Zealand and stylised as ''Kmart'') is an Australian chain of retail department stores owned by the Kmart Group division of Wesfar ...

. In Canada, the song has been used in a series of TV commercials for the Joe Fresh line of clothing. In the United Kingdom, it is heard in TV commercials for online casino company 32Red. It is also featured in '' The Sims 3: Island Paradise'' and is sung in

Simlish Simlish is a constructed language devised by game designer Will Wright for the '' Sims'' game series developed by Electronic Arts. During the development of '' SimCopter'' (1996), Wright sought to avoid real-world languages, believing that pla ...

. It is also featured in the first trailer of ''

Free Birds ''Free Birds'' is a 2013 American animated Thanksgiving science fiction film, science fiction comedy film directed by Jimmy Hayward, who co-wrote the screenplay with the film's producer Scott Mosier. The film stars the voices of Owen Wilson, Wo ...

'', and can be heard in the mystery buddy comedy film '' Holmes & Watson''.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2012 songs 2012 debut singles Number-one singles in Scotland UK singles chart number-one singles Stiff Records singles British dance songs