"Proud" is the debut solo single by

M People M People (stylised as ''M''People) are an English dance music band that formed in 1990 and achieved success throughout most of the 1990s. The name M People is derived from the first letter of the first name of band member Mike Pickering, who f ...

singer

Heather Small Heather Marguerita Small (born 20 January 1965) is an English soul music, soul singer and lead vocalist of the band M People. Her subsequent debut solo studio album, ''Proud (Heather Small album), Proud'', was released in 2000. Her second and ...

, released on 8 May 2000. It was co-written with and produced by Peter-John Vettese, and is the title track of her debut album '' Proud''. The song peaked at number 16 on the UK Singles Chart.

Track listing

Charts

Certifications

In popular culture

In 2000, the song was used in the closing montage of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's coverage of the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

. Five years later, it was adopted as the official theme for the

London 2012 Olympic bid London 2012 was the successful bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, held in London with most events taking place in Stratford in the borough of Newham. The British Olympic Association had been working on the bid since 1997, and presented ...

, and was featured in a widely seen promotional video for the bid. Re-released in honour of this, and due to the fact a new

greatest hits album titled '' Ultimate Collection'', which also included two of Small's solo songs, was released the same year, the song returned to the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 33 and remained in the Top 75 for two more weeks. In 2009, almost a decade after the song was first released, it gained new popularity thanks to the hit

sitcom '' Miranda'', written by and starring Miranda Hart. The song was a source of one of the show’s most frequent running gags, whereby Miranda's best friend and colleague, Stevie Sutton (played by

Sarah Hadland Sarah Hadland (born 15 May 1971) is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Stevie Sutton in BBC One's BAFTA-nominated comedy television series '' Miranda'' (2009–2015) and Trish in '' The Job Lot'' (2013–2015). Hadland appear ...

) would sing the song's chorus in the style of Small's voice as a motivational chant, while holding a cardboard cutout of Small on a wooden stick. Small herself subsequently appeared in a special sketch with the ''Miranda'' cast for

Comic Relief Comic Relief is a British charity, founded in 1986 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make t ...

in 2011 for Red Nose Day, and also sang "Proud" at the climax of the show’s last ever episode, "The Final Curtain", aired on New Year's Day in 2015.

References

{{Authority control 2000 debut singles 2000 songs Arista Records singles Song recordings produced by Peter-John Vettese Songs written by Peter-John Vettese