Booyah

Album: Single Release Only (2013)
Charted: 5
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Showtek are an EDM duo comprising Dutch brothers Wouter and Sjoerd Janssen. This song was recorded with the collaboration of their fellow Netherlands natives, DJs We Are Loud! and vocalist Sonny Wilson.
  • "Booyah" is an exclamation said to punctuate something very well done. It originates from street slang for a gunshot, which is how it was used in early Gangsta Rap, notably with the group Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.

    When Stuart Scott started using the saying as a catch phrase on ESPN's SportsCenter, the term went mainstream, especially in the world of sports where it was often said after a big play. It went Hollywood when Cuba Gooding Jr., playing wide receiver Rod Tidwell in the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire, said:
    "Booyah! Touchdown! I make miracles happen!"
  • Though many doubted the song's commercial potential, it became Showtek's first UK hit. Sjoerd Janssen told Joonbug after it began to get significant airplay: "We produced the track, and we finished it, and we were loving it. Especially the strong bass in the break—we were loving it. And everyone was like, 'Oh, that's so cool! But no one's gonna play it because it's too difficult.' I was like, 'F--k difficult, I'll do what I love and see what happens.'"

    "Now it's being played on BBC 1 Radio like three times a day," he added. "Yesterday it was track of the day. And it was the most Googled song in England. So just follow your heart, follow your passion, f--k the rules. And if it's being picked up by the radio, you make it easier for the radio but for the rest, we stick to our own plan."
  • The video features two brothers playing truant from school, running amok in London. Wouter Janssen told Joonbug: "We kept it really urban and low key. Not too flashy and stuff because the track is already uplifting. So the track is like, down to earth, urban, little boys having fun and having a great day. When we were young, we skipped school, played basketball and made music. That's the whole idea behind the clip. It's like, 'Hey mom! Just playing basketball, making music and smoking weed!' It was the best. We were young."
  • Wouter Janssen admitted to Radio.com that the duo knew they had something special the moment it was created in the recording studio. "We had the melody, and I changed two keys and we were in the studio like [mimics screaming]," he said. "If you have that moment, and you play it for the first time and everybody is like [mimics more screaming], you cannot wait to drop it."

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