"Proud" is a song by British boy band
JLS, which serves as the official
Sport Relief
''Sport Relief'' was a wikt:biennial, biennial charity event from Comic Relief, in association with BBC Sport, established in 2002.
It was the idea of Kevin Cahill, CBE, who had joined Comic Relief in 1991 to establish a new department as Dire ...
charity single for 2012, and appears on the festive edition of the group's fourth studio album, ''
Evolution
Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
''. The single was released on 16 March 2012. The song was written by co-written by JLS, Daniel Davidsen, Jason Gill, Jonathan Gill,
Cutfather, and
Ali Tennant. The single sold nearly 45,000 copies during its first week of sales, peaking at number 6 on the
UK Singles Chart.
Music video
A music video to accompany the release of "Proud" 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 10 February 2012 at a total length of four minutes and eight seconds. The video sees
JLS walk around
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...
at night, interspersed with shots of children being inspired by sports. Olympic athletes
Philips Idowu,
Rebecca Adlington and
Louis Smith also make an appearance carrying the British flag.
Critical reception
Robert Copsey 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 ...
'' gave the song a positive review stating: "As charity singles stand, it ticks all the necessary boxes: a twinkly piano riff, light R&B beats and the words "stronger", "wiser" and, of course "proud" jammed in as many times as possible. As an exercise in schmaltzy midtempo balladry, it passes with flying colours - though points are deducted due to the lack of key change in the finale." .
Ironically, during the band's reunion tour
Beat Again Tour in 2021, the song was performed with an added key change at the end.
Chart performance
In Ireland, the song debuted at number twenty-eight.
"Proud" debuted at number six 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 ...
, with first-week sales of nearly 45,000, copies. However, the track only spent two weeks inside the Top 40.
UK Singles Chart - week 8 April 2012
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Track listing
# "Proud" – 4:02
# "Proud" (Cutmore Radio Remix) – 3:21
Charts
Release history
References
{{JLS
2012 singles
JLS songs
Charity singles
Contemporary R&B ballads
Songs written by Daniel Davidsen
Songs written by Cutfather
Songs written by Jason Gill (musician)
Comic Relief singles
Songs written by Ali Tennant
2011 songs
2010s ballads
Song recordings produced by Cutfather