"Boom Boom Pow" is a single by the Black Eyed Peas released as the lead single from their fifth studio album, The E.N.D.The song uses the auto-tune vocal effect, and blends the genres of dance pop, electro-hop and hip hop.

"Boom Boom Pow" topped the Hot 100, making it the group's first U.S. number-one single. It is the second longest-running single to stay atop the Hot 100 in 2009, beaten only by the Black Eyed Peas' second single from The E.N.D., "I Gotta Feeling", which held the top spot for 14 consecutive weeks. It has also topped the Australian, Canadian and UK singles charts as well as reaching the top 10 in more than 20 countries. The song was named 7th on the BillboardHot 100 Songs of the Decade.

The song sold over 4,295,000 digital downloads in the U.S, becoming the group's highest-selling song in the U.S. to date. It reached this threshold in just 23 weeks, faster than any other song in digital history. The old record was set by "Low" by Flo Rida, which topped the 4 million mark in its 35th week of release. The single has since sold 5,034,711 copies in the U.S.

"Boom Boom Pow" was ranked as the No. 1 song and digital song at the Billboard Year End Chart of 2009.

The song was nominated at the 52nd Grammy Awards for Best Dance Recording and won Best Short Form Music Video. Rolling Stoneranked the song #14 on their Best 25 Songs of 2009 list.

The song opens with Will.i.am meditating on and affirming a new, futuristic sound for himself and the rest of the Peas ("I got that rock-and-roll, that future flow"). Fergie, Taboo , and apl.de.ap each offer a variation on this theme, after which Will.i.am (introduced by Fergie) demonstrates the theme at work in a series of rapid-fire raps, punctuated with digital effects. The song concludes with Fergie repeating her initial verse, forming an outro of sorts and taking the listener more or less full-circle.

Fergie has commented on the unusual structure of the song, stating

The song also attempts a futuristic quality, with Fergie rapping the lyric "I'm so three thousand and eight, you so two thousand and late." The song's beat is influenced by 1980's electro song "Planet Rock". Will.i.am stated that the lyric helped inspire the futuristic concept of the video. Will.i.am also stated on the Merrick and Rossobreakfast show ( Nova 96.9) that the song was heavily influenced by the electro sounds he heard in the nightclubs in Sydney, Australia, during the filming of X-Men Origins: Wolverineand his visit to Australia.

Following the band's record breaking success with "Boom Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling", Will.i.am commented in a video on Billboardon the song's success, saying:

"Boom Boom Pow" was released to U.S. mainstream radio on March 13, 2009. It was released officially on iTunes in the U.S. on March 30, 2009. It was scheduled to be released in the UK on May 25, 2009, however due to 3 alternative versions of the song entering the UK iTunes Top 50 songs, the Black Eyed Peas version was released 2 weeks early, on Sunday, May 10. One of their full performances took place at the American Idol Finale of 2009. This had also helped the single to become more well known to the public.

As of June 2009, an unknown number of North American radio stations have elected to censor the song's reference to satellite radio. Most UK radio stations have also been found to distort the word satellite radio, and this is the version that appears on the UK CD single.

The official remix is called, "Let the Beat Rock (Boys Noize Megamix)", and is produced by Boys Noize and there are 5 versions of the song. The official remixed version features 50 Cent of which there are 2 versions:

The second version features Gucci Mane also in the EP, the third version features Flo Rida, the fourth version is a mash-up of the 50 Cent remix and the Gucci Mane remix, and the fifth version is known as "Ching, Chang, Chong", by Rucka Rucka Ali. There are other remixes using the original version of the song by Busta Rhymes and Fatman Scoop.

A remix by DJ Ammo/A Poet Named Life is played in the ending credits of the 2009 Summer blockbuster film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

At the 2009 American Music Awards, the guitar riff of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana was played after the performance of this song.

On the fourth season of America's Best Dance Crew, a District 78 remix of the song was used for the sudden death challenge on the first episode, in the dance-off between Beat Ya Feet Kings, Southern Movement, and Fr3sh. Fr3sh was eliminated.

Nick Levine from Digital Spygave "Boom Boom Pow" four out of five stars, saying that "it's a fairly ridiculous robopop stomper featuring no real chorus, 808s & Heartbreaks-style beats, lashings of Auto-Tune, techno synths that arrive half-way through and this vintage diss from Fergie: 'I'm so 3008, you're so 2000 and late.' It may well become grating, but frankly who cares? Right now this just sounds cracking." Billboardgave the song a positive review, stating that the song "shows the Black Eyed Peas in fine form" and that it was "a knockout".

In Australia, Boom Boom Pow was released on the 30th of March and debuted on the ARIA Charts on April 6, 2009. It has since reached number one, staying there 12 weeks and was certified 4x Platinum by the RIAA. It was the highest selling single of 2009 before being de-throned by Britney Spears's hit single "3". It spent 27 weeks in the Top 20. Australia is the first country in which the song was released.

The song (as of the end of 2009) has sold 4,670,000 million downloads in the US. The U.S., the song debuted at number 71 after garnering heavy airplay. In its second week, it rose to number 54. In the third week, it rose to 39, still surging in airplay. The song rocketed from 39 to 1 in its fourth week on the Hot 100. The single sold 465,000 downloads in its first week of digital release, the third-largest number of download sales in a single week overall, and the largest single-week and debut-download totals by a group in the history of digital-download sales tracking, reaching #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Pop 100. It became the group's first U.S. #1, holding the spot for twelve consecutive weeks. Having been dethroned to #2 by the Black Eyed Peas' other song "I Gotta Feeling", it is the second longest running #1 song of 2009 to date on the chart, behind I Gotta Feeling, and the first song to spend at least twelve weeks at #1 since Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" in 2005. "Boom Boom Pow"'s 12-week stay at #1 ties the record held by Eminem's "Lose Yourself" as the longest running Rap/Hip Hop song to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song was finally dethroned on the Hot 100 by the band's own follow up single "I Gotta Feeling." The chart week of May 30, 2009 "Boom Boom Pow" became only the fifth song to top both Billboard's Mainstream Top 40 and Rhythmic Top 40 charts in the same week, reaching an estimated audience of 99 million on U.S. radio that week. It was the fourth song of the decade of the 2000s to spend at least twelve weeks at #1, and only the twelfth song in the chart's history to spend at least twelve weeks at the top. It is the band's first Rhythmic number one, and their second Mainstream Top 40 number one. "Boom Boom Pow" became the first song in digital history to spend its first twelve weeks of release as the most-downloaded song in America, selling at least 200,000 copies a week for eleven straight weeks.

It has also topped the charts on the Canadian Hot 100 the same week as on the Hot 100 and on the Australian ARIA Charts. On the New Zealand RIANZ chart, the song has so far peaked at number two. Moreover, it has charted within the top 10 in more than ten countries.

On May 17, 2009, it entered the UK Singles Chart at #1 based on almost 75,000 downloads alone. It is the band's second number one in the UK (the other being "Where Is the Love?" which also reached the top of the chart six years prior). It has also reached #3 so far in Ireland.

After being knocked off the number 1 spot in the United Kingdom on May 24, 2009 by "Bonkers" by Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden, the song remained at the #2 slot for 2 weeks before returning to #1 on June 7, 2009. "Bonkers" had meanwhile swapped places with "Boom Boom Pow" and took the #2 slot. This subsequently marks the first time a song has had two separate runs at the summit of the chart since Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" in July 2006. Their follow up single in the UK "I Gotta Feeling" also peaked at #1 and managed the same feat of having two separate runs at number one on the UK Singles Chart. With sales of over 600,000, the single is currently the sixth best selling of 2009 in the UK. "Boom Boom Pow" is also the 13th best selling R&B song of the 21st century in the UK.

Fergie had stated at an interview on The Insiderthat the music video would be shooting the week of March 8, 2009. The making of the video was released by MTV on April 8.

In an interview to MTV, it was said that "... the concept of the video is the Peas' birth into the digital afterlife," Fergie said. "So the transformation is us going into a sort of birth or cocoon and coming out the other end as forms of energy. It's a parallel to the music industry. Now everything is downloaded." Group member will.i.am stated the video was inspired by how digital the world has become and hopes the video portrays "what it would be like if we were actually in the computer, if art was fused in it," he said. "[It's] analog life from a digital perspective. Becoming technology." The music video was directed by Mathew Cullen and Mark Cudsi. The video premiered on Dipdive on April 18, 2009 and was released on iTunes on April 24, 2009.

The video is set in the year of 3008, portraying "how it would be like if we actually lived in computers". This concept was based in a line of the song, in which singer Fergie states "I'm so 3008 / You so 2000 and late". The video starts with Taboo flicking through pictures on a HP TouchSmart, he selects the image of a mushroom cloud. As the singing starts, images of computer icons and random computer code and some ASCII art of "THE END" are flashing in the background. The Black Eyed Peas are then seen singing their verses of the song. While this is happening, dancers are seen in striped zentai suits, dancing to the song, and negative images are turned into positive images. e.g. the mushroom cloud turns into a tree swing, the grenade into a microphone, a gun into a trumpet and a nuclear barrel played as a drum. The video also features the face used on the album cover miming along to various lyrics; the face was designed as an amalgam of all four band members' facial features. Much of the imagery in the video is a homage to Rebecca Allen's 1986 video for the Kraftwerk song Musique Non Stop.

The video was meant to go the full song but they cut it to 3:29.

The video won a Grammy at the 52nd Grammy Awards in the category of Best Short Form Music Video.

In January 2010, it was announced that the song was allegedly copied from another. Chicago artist Ebony Latrice Batts, better known by her stage name Phoenix Phenom, asserted the song is simply a copy of her track, "Boom Dynamite". It was written by Manfred Mohr and conceived in a music studio in Chicago. The duo sent a demo tape to Interscope Records because the record company was interested in their material. Now, they are seeking indemnity from The Black Eyed Peas and Interscope.

Promotional CD

CD single - United Kingdom

Invasion of Boom Boom Pow - Megamix E.P., An E.P. of remixes entitled "Invasion of Boom Boom Pow - Megamix E.P." was released on May 5, 2009

Common Versions

Other Versions