Songfacts®:

• Finnish DJ Darude's first hit single was a result of a collaboration with his fellow countryman JS16 of the Bomfunk MC's. The song initially conquered the Finnish charts holding the #1 spot on the nation's Dance Chart for seventeen consecutive weeks. Word spread to the rest of Europe about the track, and it eventually took off globally becoming the best selling 12-inch single worldwide in 2000.
• This was the one of the first songs to find an audience through the internet. It was initially promoted with a 60 second slip of the track being posted on the web, then got airplay in discos and clubs before it was finally released to a waiting audience.
• In June 2000 Darude became the first Finnish artist ever to reach a top 3 position on UK's single chart.
• Wanderlei Silva, a mixed martial artist, uses "Sandstorm" as his theme song.
• The song appeared in the movie Fun With Dick and Jane starring Jim Carrey.
• If you've ever appealed to an internet forum for help identifying a song post 2007, you've likely fallen victim to the "Sandstorm" meme. That year, a YouTuber soundtracked his gameplay footage from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare with the song and it became a popular tune in the online gaming community, specifically for League of Legends players on Twitch. The meme grew as a trolling joke throughout the web, where any song from a video would be misidentified as "Darude - Sandstorm" in the comments.
• To celebrate the 25th anniversary of "Sandstorm," many Finnish radio stations and shopping centers played the song simultaneously at 9:15 am on May 8, 2025.