"West End Girls" is a song by British pop duo Pet Shop Boys. Written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, the song was released twice as a single. It is a synthpop song, influenced by hip hop music. The lyrics focus on class, and inner-city pressure, and were inspired by T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land. It was generally well received by contemporary music critics and has been frequently cited as a highlight in the duo's career.

The first version of the song was produced by Bobby Orlando and was released in April 1984, becoming a club hit in the United States and some European countries. After the duo signed with EMI, the song was re-recorded with producer Stephen Hague, for their first studio album, Please. In late 1985, the song was re-released, reaching number one in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1986. In 1987, the song won for Best Single at The BRIT Awards, and Best International Hit at the Ivor Novello Awards. In 2005, 20 years later after its release, the song was awarded Song of The Decade between the years 1985 and 1994, by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters.

Neil Tennant, an editor of the British pop magazine Smash Hits, and Chris Lowe, an architecture student, met at an electronics shop in London in August 1981, they became friends, and started to write and record songs together. In 1983, Tennant met producer Bobby Orlando, while on an assignment in New York interviewing Sting for Smash Hits. After listening to some demos, Orlando offered to produce for the duo.

In 1984, the duo recorded three songs with Orlando, at Unique Studios in New York, "West End Girls", "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", and "One More Chance". Orlando played most of the instruments in the song, including the jazz riff at the end. Lowe played one chord and the bassline. It included a drum part lifted from Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean", and an arrangement involving what Tennant called "Barry White chords". Orlando was thrilled by the song's production; his idea was to make a rap record in a British accent.

In April 1984, "West End Girls" was released, becoming a club hit in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and a minor dance hit in Belgium, and France, but was only available in the United Kingdom as a 12" import. In March 1985, after long negotiations, Pet Shop Boys cut their contractual ties with Orlando, and hired manager Tom Watkins, who signed them with EMI. They re-recorded "West End Girls" with producer Stephen Hague, and re-released the song in late 1985, topping the charts in both the UK and the U.S.

"West End Girls" is a synthpop song, influenced by hip hop music. The song's socially conscious streak, as well as the propulsive bass line, derives from Grandmaster Flash's protest rap song "The Message". Lowe and Hague created a "snaky, obsessive rhythm punch" for the music, replacing the song's previously sparse beats and minimal keyboard lines.

Tennant started to write the song when he was staying at his cousin's house in Nottingham while watching a gangster film. Just when he was going to sleep, he came up with the lines: "Sometimes you're better off dead, there's a gun in your hand and it's pointing at your head". The lyrics were inspired by T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land, particularly in the use of different narrative voices and arcane references. The song's lyrics mainly focus on class and inner-city pressure, introducing existential anxiety, and urban neurosis to the melody. Tennant later said that the commonly accepted vision of the song being about rough trade was not intended.

"West End Girls" has been generally well received by music critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic in a review of the album Pleasecalled the song "hypnotic", adding that "it's not only a classic dance single, it's a classic pop single". In a review for the group's second studio album Actually, Rob Hoerburger from Rolling Stonemagazine commented that "West End Girls" was "as catchy as anything on the radio in 1986", praising "its enticing bass line and foreboding synth riffs", but felt that it was almost "nullified by peevish spoken asides and the cryptic posturing of the duo's lyrics". In a review of the live album Concrete, Michael Hubbard from musicOMH said that "West End Girls" was one of the songs that "round out a collection that never feels too long or superfluous", adding that it help "installing Tennant and Lowe as national treasures".

Nitsuh Abebe from Pitchfork Media, in a review of their compilation album Pop Art: Pet Shop Boys - The Hitscommented that in the song "we meet Tennant not as a singer, but as a speaker", adding that "he mumbles the verses to us not like a star, but like a stranger in a raincoat, slinking alongside you and pointing out the sights". LAUNCHcast's Jamie Gill in a review of the same compilation album said that "West End Girls" is "still as sleek, smart and modern as it sounded in 1985".

In 1987, "West End Girls" won for Best Single at The BRIT Awards, and for Best International Hit at the Ivor Novello Awards. In 2005, the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters gave to "West End Girls" the Ivor Novello Award for Song of The Decade between the years 1985 and 1994.

The video was directed by Andy Morahan and Eric Watson, and consists of shots of the duo around London. At the beginning of the video, noises from the city can be heard, a camera passes Lowe on the street, and focus on two vintage dolls in a shop window. Then appears a sequence of quick cuts with shots of the city's different sub-cultures, the video freezes and cuts to Tennant and Lowe, who walk through an empty Berwick Street in Soho. They stand in front of a red garage door, Tennant is in front dressed with a long coat addressing directly to the camera, Lowe stands behind him with a blank expression.

Then the video shows shots of people walking into the London Underground metro system, and as the chorus starts the duo appears on the boarding platform. In slow motion, the camera passes through a shopping mall in central London, followed by the duo walking along the concourse at Waterloo Station. It cuts to a brief shot of a red double-decker bus, and black and white shots of the Tower Bridge, Westminster and the Big Ben from the sky. The duo poses on the South Bank of the River Thames in a pastiche of a postcard image, with the Houses of Parliament as a background.

The camera shows shots of young women, and passes through arcades and movie theaters in Leicester Square. The camera now passes the South Africa House, showing protestors in an anti-apartheid vigil. The video cuts to a closeup of Tennant singing the chorus, with a purple neon sign passing across his face. At the end the camera passes again through Leicester Square, where people queue to see Fletchand Desperately Seeking Susan. The video was nominated for Best New Artist in a Video at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards, but lost to a-ha's "Take on Me".

"West End Girls" was first released in April 1984 through writer and producer Bobby Orlando's label. The song was a club hit in the United States, and in some European countries like Belgium, where it debuted at number 24 on the VRT Top 30 chart on 28 July 1984, peaking at 17 four weeks later. Having signed with EMI the group released their first major label single "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", but it failed to attract attention. The Pet Shop Boys then decided to release "West End Girls" for the second time. Producer Stephen Hague then reworked the song and the single was re-released in late 1985.

"West End Girls" was released in the United Kingdom in October 1985, debuting on the UK Singles Chart at number 80, and within eight weeks of its release, it had reached the top of the chart. It maintained the number one position for two weeks and received a gold certification by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in January 1986. Across Europe, "West End Girls" also topped the singles chart in Norway, as well as peaking in the top three in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland.

In Canada, "West End Girls" first entered the RPMsingles chart in April 1985, reaching a peak position of 81 in June 1985. In March 1986, the song re-entered the chart, peaking at number one for one week on 17 May 1986. In the United States, "West End Girls" debuted on the Hot 100 at number 71, reaching the number one position on 10 May 1986, and remained on the chart for 20 weeks. The song also peaked at number one on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart for two weeks.

The titles "Nouvelle version" and "Original 7" version" do not appear on any releases. They are names created by fans in order to distinguish the different versions.