Saturday Night (Whigfield song)

Whigfield (AKA Sannie Charlotte Carlson) studied fashion design in Copenhagen and went to Bologna in Italy where she worked as a model by day and as a PR girl for clubs at night. One of the club DJs, Davide Riva, was part of a music production duo. He persuaded her to sing for them. She then visited Italian producer Larry Pignagnoli in his studio and performed a song sample. He hired her to record "Saturday Night" and she chose the name Whigfield after an old teacher in Denmark. Larry Pignagnoli already had success with Spagna in the late 1980s and early 1990s before he produced "Saturday Night" with Whigfield. They did over 20 takes, then they spliced the best bits together. Whigfield has stated that "The song is like a nursery rhyme, with lyrics about what girls do when they’re getting ready to go out, and about getting hot when they’re out dancing."[6]

Initially, no record companies were interested in publishing "Saturday Night". After it was played frequently in the Spanish radio show World Dance Music, interest in the song began to increase.[7] The first label to pick up the song was a small label, Prodisc in Valencia. It was first released in Italy in 1992,[1] then became a number-one hit in Spain at the end of 1993.[2][8] In 1994, it became a hit with British holidaymakers on the continent at the end of the year, leading to a huge demand for the track in the United Kingdom. The single was not released in North America until February 1995.

AllMusic editor William Cooper described the song as "irresistibly catchy".[9] Larry Flick from Billboard wrote that the first joint project between Curb and Atlantic Records "is a giddy pop/dance ditty that has already saturated radio airwaves throughout Europe. It also has gotten early spins on crossover stations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Nashville—and rightly so. The tune has a simple, but killer hook that is matched by a jumpy, rave-coated rhythm section and chirpy female vocals."[10] Evening Herald noted it as a "infectious pop classic".[11] Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger complimented the song for being "one of those iconically simple pop hits" and for its "resistibility". He added that "Saturday Night" is "charmingly unassuming, thanks mainly to Whigfield's matter-of-fact performance. If you do stick around, your reward is a lovely bit of house piano heading for the fade. But this song is never pushy. It's Saturday night. Whigfield is having a great time."[12] Stephen Meade from The Network Forty noted it as "exciting".[13] NME called it "violently catchy".[14] In 1995, Staines & Ashford News commented that "Saturday Night" "set the dubs alight through much of last summer".[15] Simon Cowell compared Saturday Night to Rebecca Black's "Friday", stating that they are "what we call a 'hair-dryer song'; a song girls sing into their hair dryers as they're getting ready to go out".[16]

"Saturday Night" was released in the United Kingdom on September 5, 1994, and went straight to number one - dethroning Wet Wet Wet's 15 week chart-topper "Love Is All Around" on September 11,[17] despite that single increasing its sales from 65,000 the previous week to 104,000, when "Saturday Night" entered at number 1 with sales of 150,000. Whigfield was the first act to enter at number one in the United Kingdom chart with her début single.[18] It stayed at number one for a total of four weeks selling 680,000 in the process, went on to become the second best selling single of the year, and has sold a total of 1.18 million copies.[5] "Saturday Night" is also the 15th biggest-selling single by a female artist in the United Kingdom.[19] "Saturday Night" also was a No. 1 hit in Germany, Ireland, Spain and Switzerland. And a No. 2 hit in Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy and Norway. Additionally, the song reached the Top 10 also in Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden. Outside Europe, it peaked at number-one on the RPM Dance Chart in Canada, No. 3 in Israel and Zimbabwe, No. 19 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play in the United States and No. 78 in Australia.

The official music video was directed by La La Land.[20] It features numerous different scenes of Whigfield standing in front of a mirror, getting ready to go out on Saturday night. The video was uploaded to YouTube in October 2010. By August 2020, it had more than 80 million views.[21]

There is a dance routine which is commonly performed to the song (particularly at parties and nightclubs in the United Kingdom),[22] the origins of which are uncertain.[23] There is a suggestion from some sources that it was begun as an aerobic routine by a gym instructor created to the song at a holiday resort and followed the song back to UK.[23][24] The dance does not appear in the music video for the song, however it was performed by backing dancers during Whigfield's performance on Top of the Pops on 16 September 1994.[25]

Whigfield stated in an interview with Justin Myers for the Official Charts Company, "I remember I did some promotion in this place north of Madrid and when I was doing the track [I] saw everybody doing this thing and they all jumped at the same time. I hadn’t even known about the dance until then... I still remember the dance, but I didn’t do it. I thought it was kind of nice that it was just the people doing it."[23]

Two claims of plagiarism were made. It was alleged that the track ripped off both "Rub a Dub Dub" by the Equals and "Fog on the Tyne" by Lindisfarne. Both claims were dismissed.[18]

The Guardian ranked "Saturday Night" number 91 in their list of The 100 greatest UK No. 1s in 2020.[26]

A version of the track was used in the game The Amazing Adventures of Harry Haddock for the Amiga A500, available on issue 142 of the magazine Amiga Action.[27]

In November 2020, the song was 'adopted' by the Scotland national football team during celebrations following their qualification for UEFA Euro 2020 (with "David Marshall" substituting for "be my baby").[28]