"Bonkers" is a song by English rapper

Dizzee Rascal Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 18 September 1984), known professionally as Dizzee Rascal, is a British rapper and MC. He is often credited as a pioneer of British hip hop and grime music and was ranked by ''Complex'' as one of the greatest British ...

and American producer Armand van Helden. It is the first single released from Rascal's fourth studio album, '' Tongue n' Cheek.'' Rascal released the track under his own record label, Dirtee Stank Recordings on 17 May 2009 in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, entering at the top of the UK Singles Chart, marking Dizzee's second number-one single, third top-ten single and eleventh top-forty hit on the chart. This was also Van Helden's third number-one single, his first in ten years (with " You Don't Know Me" being his previous number-one single). In October 2011, ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' placed it at number 59 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".

Background

Armand van Helden emailed Dizzee the music while he was living in the US. Dizzee instantly realised it had potential to be a festival anthem, and wrote the lyrics to it with that in mind, which he claims took him 25 minutes. The record was selected as Jo Whiley's Pet Sound and Sara Cox's 'Weekend Anthem'. Rascal said in an interview with ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'' newspaper that he is unashamed of the song's pop hooks, and, despite initially having a strong dislike for

house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...

, he has enjoyed making the song. On 5 May 2009, The King Blues chose "Bonkers" as their cover when they were in the

Live Lounge The Live Lounge is a segment on the British radio stations BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra. It was originally hosted by Simon Mayo, and later by Jo Whiley on her weekday mid-morning, and later weekend lunchtime radio shows, then by Fearne Cott ...

with Jo Whiley. Rascal performed the song live during the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics as part of a montage of British pop music.

Usage in media

The song appeared on the

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

and Wii video game '' Need for Speed: Nitro'', which takes place in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, and

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

for the Wii version, as well as in '' Need For Speed: Most Wanted''. The song appeared in the film '' Kingsman: The Secret Service''. A parody of the song, retitled "Minted", was used in the ''

Horrible Histories ''Horrible Histories'' is an educational entertainment franchise encompassing many media including books, magazines, audio books, stage shows, TV shows, and more. In 2013, Lisa Edwards, UK publishing and commercial director of Scholastic Corpo ...

'' sketch about the wealthiest man in ancient Rome,

Marcus Licinius Crassus Marcus Licinius Crassus (; 115–53 BC) was a ancient Rome, Roman general and statesman who played a key role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He is often called "the richest man in Rome".Wallechinsky, Da ...

. The lead vocals were performed by Simon Farnaby. "Bonkers" was used as the track behind the season three trailer for ''

Rick and Morty ''Rick and Morty'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated science fiction Animated sitcom, sitcom created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon for Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim. The series follows the misadvent ...

''.

Music video

There is a music video for the song that shows Dizzee Rascal on an inflatable pickup.

Track listings

*CD single / 12" vinyl #"Bonkers" – 3:01 #"Bonkers" – 3:24 #"Bonkers" – 4:29 #"Bonkers" – 5:21 #"Bonkers" – 5:30 #"Bonkers" – 5:53 #"Butterfly" – 3:53 *Digital download #"Bonkers" – 3:01 #"Bonkers" – 3:24 #"Bonkers" – 4:29 #"Bonkers" – 5:21 #"Bonkers" – 5:30 #"Bonkers" – 5:53 #"Butterfly" – 3:53 #"Bonkers" – 2:56 *Bonkers (Remixes) – single #"Bonkers (As Heard on Radio

Soulwax Soulwax are a Belgian electronic band and DJ/production collective from Ghent, who formed in 1995. Centred around brothers David and Stephen Dewaele, other current members include Igor and Laima Cavalera, and Stefaan Van Leuven. The group first ...

Edit)" – 3:45 (Only available in Belgium and The Netherlands) #"Bonkers (Doorly Remix)" – 4:30

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

Listen to "Bonkers"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonkers 2009 songs 2009 singles Dizzee Rascal songs Armand Van Helden songs UK singles chart number-one singles Songs written by Armand Van Helden Songs written by Dizzee Rascal UK Independent Singles Chart number-one singles