"Blue (Da Ba Dee)" is a song by Italian music group

Eiffel 65 Eiffel 65 is an Italian music group that was formed in 1997 in the studios of the Turin record company Bliss Corporation, consisting of Jeffrey Jey, Maurizio Lobina and Gabry Ponte. They gained global popularity with their singles " Blue (Da Ba ...

. It was first released in October 1998 in Italy by Skooby Records and became internationally successful the following year. It is the lead single of their 1999 debut album, ''

Europop Europop (also spelled Euro pop) is a style of pop music that originated in Europe during the mid-to-late 1960s and developed to today's form throughout the late 1970s. Europop topped the charts throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with revivals and ...

''. The song is the group's most popular single, reaching number one in at least 18 countries, charting at number three in Italy, and peaking at number six on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in January 2000. In the United Kingdom, the song initially entered the top 40 purely on import sales; it was only the third single to do this. The song also received a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

nomination for

Best Dance Recording The Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording (formerly known as Best Dance Recording) is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists f ...

at the 2001 Grammy Awards.

Writing and production

Written by Eiffel 65 lead singer

Jeffrey Jey Gianfranco Randone (; born 5 January 1970), known by his stage name Jeffrey Jey, is an Italian musician and singer-songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the group Eiffel 65 (1997–2005, 2010–present). He was also the lead singer of ...

, keyboardist

Maurizio Lobina Maurizio Lobina (born 30 October 1973 in Asti) is an Italian musician and singer, most known as a member of the band Eiffel 65, an Italian group who hit big in 1999 with the international success " Blue (Da Ba Dee)." Lobina created the melody fo ...

, and producer Massimo Gabutti, "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" was inspired by Lobina's composed opening piano

hook A hook is a tool consisting of a length of material, typically metal, that contains a portion that is curved or indented, such that it can be used to grab onto, connect, or otherwise attach itself onto another object. In a number of uses, one e ...

. The producers of the song then came up with the idea for a dance song. Jey explained that his inspiration for the lyrics was how a person chooses their lifestyle. The colour blue as the main theme of the song was picked at random, with Lobina telling him to write nonsensical lyrics. Gabutti came up with the "da ba dee" hook. The pitch-shifted vocal effect used in the song was created with a

harmonizer Pitch shifting is a sound recording technique in which the original pitch of a sound is raised or lowered. Effects units that raise or lower pitch by a pre-designated musical interval ( transposition) are called pitch shifters. Pitch and ti ...

Lyrics and composition

"Blue (Da Ba Dee)" is written in the key of

G minor G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative major is B-flat major and its parallel major is G major. According to Paolo Pietropaolo, it is the cont ...

, with the vocal range spanning from C₃ to E₄, and is set in

common time The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

with a moderate tempo of 128 beats per minute. The song's lyrics tell a story about a man who lives in a "blue world." It also explains that he is "blue inside and outside," which, alongside the lyric "himself and everybody around 'cause he ain't got nobody to listen," and "blue are the feelings that live inside me" may indicate that the term ''blue'' represents his emotional state; however, the song also explains that a vast variety of what he owns is also blue, including his house and his car ("a blue Corvette"): different blue-coloured objects are also depicted on the single's cover.

Critical reception

The song received mixed reviews from critics. Chuck Taylor from ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' wrote that "the hook here, with its dancy but curiously compelling singsongy rhythm and lyric, is destined to react instantly with listeners far and wide." He also noted that it has a "euro sound", and "it's creative, it will affect listeners on both ends of the demographic spectrum, and it's anthemic." A reviewer from ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' positively reviewed the song, calling the song "a fleeting, feel-good foot-tapper" and gave the song a rating of B−. Scottish newspaper '' Daily Record'' said it is the "strangest-sounding Euro-club hit of the summer". The Daily Vault's Christopher Thelen described it as a "quirky little hit" with a "bouncy chorus". He also noted that "the key is the use of the voice synthesizer". ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

'' reviewer Chris Massey, in his review of ''Europop'', described his initial reaction to the song as being "really, really bad." However, he later stated in the review that after many repeated listenings of the song he "loved it."

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 ...

editor Jose F. Promis described the song as a "hypnotic smash" in his review of ''Europop''. ''

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

'', however, in their review of ''Europop'', gave the song a negative review, commenting that the song "blends

Cher Cher (; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the Honorific nicknames in popular music, "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female ...

-esque

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

vocals, trance-like synth riffs, unabashed Eurodisco beats and a baby-babble chorus so infantile it makes the

Teletubbies ''Teletubbies'' is a British children's television series created by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport for the BBC. The programme focuses on four differently coloured characters known as the Teletubbies, named after the television screens on th ...

sound like

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

." The magazine also placed the song on their list of the "20 Most Annoying Songs," at No. 14.

Chart performance

The single, released in October 1998, was a

chart-topper A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include rec ...

in many European countries. The song initially found success in France, where it debuted in August 1999 and reached number one for three weeks. It then found success in other European countries, reaching the top spot on many charts in September the same year, including Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, The song re-charted on 6 May 2013 at No. 40 in the UK, following its inclusion in

Iron Man 3 ''Iron Man 3'' (titled onscreen as ''Iron Man Three'') is a 2013 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Man, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to ''Ir ...

Music video

The accompanying

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 ...

for the song was released in 1999 by BlissCoMedia, a computer graphics division of Bliss Corporation, known at the time the video was produced and released as BlissMultiMedia.Blue: 10 anni, 10 milioni di download
(In Italian). Blisscomedia.com. Accessed from 11 May 2013. Like much of the Bliss Corporation's music videos, this one was done in a

green screen Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to r ...

garage studio at BlissCoMedia, and it featured computer-generated graphics that were done in

3ds Max Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio and 3D Studio Max, is a professional 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, models, games and images. It is developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It has modeling capabil ...

. With very few resources, tutorials and books, and only one editing machine, the video was made between 1998 and 1999 in a garage in about two to three months, much like other videos made by BlissCo. Former BlissCo employee Davide La Sala has talked about coming up with the story for the video: "We had brainstorming sessions and we were a very imaginative team, huge fans of sci-fi movies and video games: ''

Blade Runner ''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick' ...

'', ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'', etc… we were master in doing our best and working with the few tools we had to create complete short stories in a very short period of time." Similar to other music videos by BlissCo, a total of five people worked on this video. The green-screen footage was done in a short amount of time, and some of it was put into a computer-generated 3D environment, while components of the band were also shot. La Sala said, "We were very flexible but every person in the team had his own special skill who was more towards motion graphics, design and editing, others more skilled in architectural design and me and the CEO experts in animation." The video was listed in

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

's "50 Worst Music Videos Ever".

Synopsis

The video takes place on Tukon4, where lead singer

is abducted by blue-coloured

aliens Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrate ...

Zorotl and Sayok6 during a concert.

Notable cover versions and parodies

Wynter Gordon Diana Gordon, previously known by her stage name Wynter Gordon, is an American singer and songwriter. She began her career writing music for other artists, later signing with Atlantic Records where she started to work on her own album. Her deb ...

sang the chorus of "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" in

Flo Rida Tramar Lacel Dillard (born September 16, 1979), better known by his stage name Flo Rida (, ), is an American rapper and singer. His 2007 breakout single " Low" was number one for 10 weeks in the United States and broke the record for digital dow ...

's 2009 single "

Sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

". *

Dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded danc ...

act Michael Mind Project used a sample of "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" in their 2012 single "

Feeling So Blue "Feeling So Blue" is a song by German musical group Michael Mind Project headed by German music producer and DJ Michael Mind. The single features vocals from American singer Dante Thomas Dante Thomas (born January 7, 1982) is an American R&B s ...

". The single featuring

Dante Thomas Dante Thomas (born January 7, 1982) is an American R&B singer and musician, who experienced international success in 2001 with his song, "Miss California". Musical career He was discovered by Donovan Thomas and Doug E. Fresh. His debut album ' ...

charted in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France. * In 2017, a remix of the song by

David Guetta Pierre David Guetta ( , ; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and music producer. He has over 10 million album and 65 million single sales globally, with more than 10 billion streams. In 2011, 2020 and 2021, Guetta was voted the number one D ...

featuring vocals from

Bebe Rexha Bleta Rexha (; born August 30, 1989), known professionally as Bebe Rexha ( ), is an American pop singer and songwriter. After signing with Warner Records in 2013, Rexha received songwriting credits on Eminem's single " The Monster" (which later ...

, with completely different lyrics, was played at Ultra Music Festival 2017 but was not released. In 2022, the track became popular on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

. This resurgence in popularity led Guetta and Rexha to finish the song, and it was released in August 2022 with the title "

I'm Good (Blue) "I'm Good (Blue)" is a song by French DJ David Guetta and American singer Bebe Rexha. It was released as a single on 26 August 2022, through What a DJ and Warner UK. The song was written by Kamille and Rexha, who composed the track alongside ...

". * In 2019, Swedish singer Nea interpolated the song in Some Say. * In 2020, Italian rapper

Shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...

sampled the song in his single "Auto blu". * In December 2020,

Symphonic death metal Symphonic metal is a cross-generic style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitar ...

Band

Fleshgod Apocalypse Fleshgod Apocalypse is an Italian symphonic death metal band. Formed in 2007, the group resides in Perugia and are currently signed to Nuclear Blast. They have released five full-length albums. History Formation and ''Oracles'' (2007–2009) Fl ...

released a cover of "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" in their own style. *In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the ''

Blue's Clues ''Blue's Clues'' is an American live-action/animated children's television series, created by Angela C. Santomero, Todd Kessler, and Traci Paige Johnson, that premiered on Nickelodeon as part of its Nick Jr. block on September 8, 1996, and co ...

'' franchise, a small parody video about this song was produced and performed by

Steve Burns ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

Donovan Patton Donovan Patton (born March 1, 1978) is an American actor and television host. Patton graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy and acted in Shakespeare plays such as ''Much Ado About Nothing'' and '' Romeo and Juliet'' before replacing Steve B ...

, and Joshua Dela Cruz. *In July 2022, Softest Hard and T-Pain released a remix of the song.

Formats and track listings

* CD single (Italy) # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (DJ Ponte Ice Pop Mix) – 6:25 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (DJ Ponte Radio Edit) – 4:43 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Glamour Jump Cut) – 5:19 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Dub Mix) – 4:47 * CD single 1 (UK) # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Original Ice Pop Radio Edit) – 4:46 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Hannover Remix Radio Edit) – 4:04 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Glamour Jump Cut) – 5:19 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Dub) – 4:48 * CD single 2 (UK) # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Original Ice Pop 12" Mix) – 6:30 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Hannover 12" Remix) – 6:25 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Paris Remix) – 7:03 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Video) – 3:40 * Digital single # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Gabry Ponte Ice Pop Mix) – 6:27 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Gabry Ponte Ice Pop Radio) – 4:44 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Gabry Ponte Video Edit) – 3:40 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Dub Mix) – 4:47 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Molinaro Parade Mix) – 8:50 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Glamour Jump Cut) – 5:17 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Max 04 Ext Remix) – 6:35 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Hannover Remix) – 6:23 # "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" (Paris Remix) – 7:43

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References