"When Will I Be Famous?" is a song by British boy band Bros. Written by Nicky Graham and Tom Watkins, "When Will I Be Famous?" was released as a single in November 1987. The following year, it peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, topped the

Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are ...

, and entered the top five in several other countries. "When Will I Be Famous?" would later appear on Bros' 1988 album, '' Push''.

Critical reception

Richard Lowe of ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand ...

'' stated that "When Will I Be Famous?" is a "second rate" song which, in his point of view, was unlikely to be a hit. Retrospectively, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' ranked the song at number 72 on their list of the "75 Greatest Boy Band Songs of All Time" in 2020. In 2017, ''

ShortList A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...

''s Dave Fawbert listed this song at number one on his list of the "Greatest Key Changes in Music History".

Chart performance

"When Will I Be Famous?" was a number-one single in Ireland, as well as reaching number two in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland. It entered the UK Singles Chart on 28 November 1987 at number 81, in an initial five-week chart run until the end of December. It re-entered the top 100 at number 51 on the week ending 3 January 1988, reaching number two four weeks later.

Track listings

UK and US 7-inch single, Japanese mini-CD single # "When Will I Be Famous?" # "Love to Hate You" UK 12-inch single and European mini-CD single # "When Will I Be Famous?" (the Infamous mix) # "When Will I Be Famous?" (the Contender dub mix) # "Love to Hate You" US 12-inch single # "When Will I Be Famous?" (club mix) – 8:02 # "When Will I Be Famous?" (acapella mix) – 4:06 # "When Will I Be Famous?" (7-inch version) – 3:59 # "When Will I Be Famous?" (dub mix) – 7:35 # "When Will I Be Famous?" (bonus beats) – 2:53 Japanese CD mini-album # "When Will I Be Famous?" # "When Will I Be Famous?" (Infamous mix) # "When Will I Be Famous?" (the Contender dub mix)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1987 singles 1987 songs Bros (British band) songs CBS Records singles Epic Records singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Music videos directed by Andy Morahan Song recordings produced by Nicky Graham Songs about fame Songs written by Nicky Graham Songs written by Tom Watkins (music manager)