"Oh My Goodness" is a song by English singer-songwriter

Olly Murs Oliver Stanley Murs (born 14 May 1984) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence after participating on the sixth series of the television talent show ''The X Factor'' in 2009, where he finished as runn ...

, from his second studio album, ''

In Case You Didn't Know ''In Case You Didn't Know'' is the second studio album by English singer-songwriter Olly Murs, released on 25 November 2011, through Epic Records. The album's release was preceded by the number-one singles " Heart Skips a Beat" on 19 August 201 ...

'' (2011). Written by Murs, Adam Argyle and

Martin Brammer Martin Brammer (born 13 May 1957) is an English singer, songwriter, composer and record producer. He is best known as the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the pop trio Kane Gang. Brammer later developed his songwriting abilities to pen many ...

, it was released by

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

as the album's third and final single on 1 April 2012. The song, a "love at first sight" story, is a pop beat, with lyrics about a man falling for an attractive girl and wanting to be with her. It garnered a positive reception from critics for having upbeat catchability along with colourful instrumentation. "Oh My Goodness" became Murs's sixth UK top-20 hit, reaching a peak of number 13. It also reached the top 40 in countries like Ireland, Belgium, Germany, and Austria. The accompanying music video for the song, directed by Marcus Lundin, features Murs being smitten by a girl and looks all around the shopping centre to find her. Murs promoted the song by making television appearances in shows like ''

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'', ''

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'', and ''

Friday Download ''Friday Download'' is a British children's entertainment television programme, produced by Saltbeef Productions on CBBC. It premiered on 6 May 2011. The final presenting team consisted of Molly Rainford, Anaïs Gallagher, Harvey Cantwell, A ...

''.

Background

Murs wrote the song with Argyle and Brammer after being inspired by seeing an attractive girl whilst on a lunch break from recording sessions for the ''In Case You Didn't Know'' album in summer 2011, and the song tells the story of a man who falls in love with a girl at first sight, and that his lack of rationale does not matter to him as he is "dreaming of a life that anybody else would die for". In an interview with

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

music show ''

Freshly Squeezed ''Freshly Squeezed'' is a British breakfast television programme which was broadcast every weekday morning on Channel 4 from August 2006 to December 2012. Format The programme took the format of a music-based breakfast show, featuring studio p ...

'', Murs added: 'It's kind of about love at first sight, really. That moment when you see a really attractive girl, and the video reflects that with the storyline.' A short instrumental of the song's chorus acts as the theme tune to his

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documentary series ''Olly: Life on Murs''.

Music video

The music video for "Oh My Goodness" was teased with a short 30 second clip on

VEVO Vevo LLC ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized in all caps until 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available ...

a week before its premiere, and was first released onto YouTube and VEVO on 24 February 2012 at a total length of three minutes and eleven seconds. The video was shot in the new

Westfield Stratford City Westfield Stratford City is a shopping centre in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, which opened on 13 September 2011. With a total retail floor area of , it is the largest urban shopping centre in the UK by land area and the List of ...

shopping complex in east London in January 2012, and was directed by Marcus Lundin (who also directed the video for Murs' previous single, "

Dance with Me Tonight "Dance with Me Tonight" is a single by English singer-songwriter Olly Murs, taken from his second studio album, '' In Case You Didn't Know''. It was released as the album's second single on 18 November 2011 and was written by Murs, Claude Kell ...

"). In the video whilst going up an escalator with friends, Murs sees an attractive girl (

Mecia Simson Mecia Simone Simson (; born 29 December 1989) is an English actress and model. She won the fifth series of ''Britain's Next Top Model'' (2009). She played Francesca Findabair in the Netflix series ''The Witcher'' (2021–). Early life and edu ...

) on the escalator going in the opposite direction. Instantly attracted to her, Murs, unknown to her, gives chase after her through the shopping centre – tearing through shop displays, knocking over waiters and using a

segway A Segway is a two-wheeled, self-balancing personal transporter device invented by Dean Kamen. The name is a registered trademark of Segway Inc. It was brought to market in 2001 as the Segway HT, and then subsequently as the Segway PT. ''HT ...

before finally catching up with her at the video's end.

Critical reception

The single was met with mostly positive reviews from critics upon its release. Lewis Corner, writing for

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 it four out of five, and praised the song as an "ear-grabbing tune" with "a dashing brass section and toe-tapping guitar riff so colourful and suave that even a Disney Prince Charming would struggle to compete with". Melisa Greenfield, writing for Stereoboard.com, also noted the positive, upbeat vibe of the song, saying: "This song is incredible and will put a smile on even the grumpiest faces – even if it’s just because they’re smiling at the dancing of those around them because, let’s face it, this song does make you want to dance."

Live performances

Murs gave his first live performances of the song on his arena tour of the UK and Ireland in February 2012. The first televised performance of the song was on ''

'' on 9 March 2012, where he was also interviewed along with guests

Damian Lewis Damian Watcyn Lewis (born 11 February 1971) is a British actor, musician and producer. He rose to prominence portraying U.S. Army Major Richard Winters in the HBO miniseries ''Band of Brothers (miniseries), Band of Brothers''. Lewis won a Prime ...

and

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. Murs has also performed the song at ''The Sport Relief Mile Show'', ''

'', ''

'', '' The Crush'', ''The One and Only

Des O'Connor Desmond Bernard O'Connor (12 January 1932 – 14 November 2020) was an English comedian, singer and television presenter. He was a long-time TV chat-show host, beginning with '' The Des O'Connor Show'' in 1963, which ran for ten years as we ...

'' and his special celebrity edition of ''

Deal or No Deal ''Deal or No Deal'' is the name of several closely related television game shows, the first of which (launching the format) was the Dutch '' Miljoenenjacht'' (''Hunt/Chase for Millions''). The centerpiece of this format is the final round (a ...

''. In Germany, the song has been performed on the soap opera '' GZSZ'' and '' The Dome''.

Popular culture

In December 2014, the song featured in a Big Sale advert for BT Broadband.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2011 songs 2012 singles Olly Murs songs Songs written by Olly Murs Songs written by Martin Brammer Songs written by Adam Argyle