"Oh My Gosh" is a song by British

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

duo

Basement Jaxx Basement Jaxx are an English electronic music duo consisting of Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe. The pair got their name from the regular club night they held in Brixton, London, UK. They first rose to popularity in the underground house scene ...

. It was released on 14 March 2005 as the lead single from the band's

greatest hits album A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

, '' The Singles''.

Vula Malinga Vula Malinga (born May 15, 1980) is an American-born British singer. Born in the United States to South African parents, she was raised in Hackney, London. Her religious parents supported her singing talents by allowing her to join the church c ...

and rapper Skillah are two vocals contributor in the song. The song achieved moderate success when it peaked at number eight in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

and was also nominated for the

Popjustice £20 Music Prize The Popjustice £20 Music Prize, also known as the Popjustice Twenty Quid Prize, is an annual prize awarded by music website Popjustice to recognise the best British pop single of the previous year. The prize was conceived by Popjustice founder P ...

. Worldwide, "Oh My Gosh" reached number four in Finland and peaked within the top 40 in Australia, Flemish Belgium and Ireland.

Background and composition

The duo sat down and wrote the song specially as a single for the album. Ratcliffe personally felt encouraged by it; he thought it was a good way to ease them back into

songwriting A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

process. They applied the same treatment to their later single "

Hush Boy "Hush Boy" is a song by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx. It was released in 2006 by record label XL Recordings, XL as the first single from their fourth studio album ''Crazy Itch Radio''. It reached number 27 in the UK Singles Chart. ...

" but, however, failed. The duo had been working with her for three years earlier.

Critical reception

While reviewing ''The Singles'',

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

Andy Kellman listed the song as one of his "track picks" on the album and called the song "rubbery", "deliciously flirtatious and cartoonish." Writing for ''

Drowned in Sound ''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums. History ''D ...

'', Julian Ridgway gave the song 5 out of 10, stated: "They’ve proved themselves masters of the dumb pop single in the past – records that make you smile even if they don’t make you think. But with 'Oh My Gosh' the smile’s started to freeze over, like the one you get when people make you look through their holiday photos." He concluded his review by commented that the "airhead" lyrics are "quite funny" but the song "is pretty average stuff for them." In 2005, it was nominated for the

, but lost to " Wake Me Up" by

Girls Aloud Girls Aloud were an pop girl group that was created through the ITV talent show '' Popstars: The Rivals'' in 2002. The group comprised singers Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. The group achieved a str ...

Chart performance

On 26 March 2005 the song debuted at its highest position with number eight on the

. Thanks to its digital downloading availability, the song charted at number 27 rather than number 45 on its fifth week in.

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was directed by

Mat Kirkby Mat Kirkby is a Welsh filmmaker. In 2015, he won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for directing '' The Phone Call'', a short drama film starring Sally Hawkins and Jim Broadbent. Kirkby wrote the film with his colleague James Luca ...

, who previously worked with Basement Jaxx on the video for "

Good Luck Luck is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at any time, both due to rand ...

". is directed is set in a

retirement home A retirement home – sometimes called an old people's home or old age home, although ''old people's home'' can also refer to a nursing home – is a multi-residence housing facility intended for the elderly. Typically, each person or couple i ...

, and features elderly man and woman singing about how they like each other whilst doing elderly activities. One of the dancers of the video was Deanne Berry, the dancer and fitness guru that previously famous for making her appearance on the music video of

Eric Prydz Eric Sheridan Prydz (, ; born 19 July 1976), also known by his many aliases including Pryda () and Cirez D (), is a Swedish DJ and music producer. He rose to fame with his 2004 hit single " Call on Me", and saw continued chart success with "Pro ...

" Call on Me". In the video, she dressed as an old lady, which she thought was "pretty funny." The video is the one of the two comedic works from Kirkby, while the other is his 2013

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

, '' The Phone Call''. "There were some interesting similarities on the shoot – in comedy I’m usually sat behind a monitor, biting my hand/trying to stifle a laugh/keep quiet so that I don’t ruin the take," he said. "In both cases I find that zipping up your snorkel and pulling down your hat helps muffle the sound." The video was awarded "Best Video" at the 2005 House Music Awards, Malinga was there at the ceremony to receive it.

Track listings

UK CD1 and European CD single # "Oh My Gosh" (radio edit) # "Oh My Gosh" (Old Skool dub) UK CD2 # "Oh My Gosh" (Jaxx club edit) # "Oh My Gosh" (Kneedeep club mix) # "Oh My Gosh" (Bugz in the Attic remix) # "Oh My Dub" UK 12-inch single :A1. "Oh My Gosh" (Jaxx club edit) :A2. "Oh My Gosh" (Bugz in the Attic remix) :B1. "Oh My Gosh" (Kneedeep club mix) Australian and New Zealand maxi-CD single # "Oh My Gosh" (radio edit) # "Oh My Gosh" (Old Skool dub) # "Oh My Gosh" (Jaxx club edit) # "Oh My Gosh" (Kneedeep club mix) # "Oh My Gosh" (Bugz in the Attic remix) # "Oh My Dub"

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2005 songs Basement Jaxx songs Songs written by Felix Buxton Songs written by Simon Ratcliffe (musician) XL Recordings singles UK Independent Singles Chart number-one singles