Shaggy’s ‘Boombastic’ Featured On Netflix’s ‘The Crown’

Boombastic, the hit single by Dancehall superstar Shaggy, was briefly featured in Episode 8 of the latest season of The Crown on Netflix.  The series, which is in its fifth season, follows the British Monarchy from the 1940s to 2000s.

The episode, which is titled “Gunpowder,” takes place amid an explosive Princess Diana/BBC interview in 1995, the same year that Shaggy’s song peaked at No. 1 on the UK Singles chart and No. 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.   

As the episode closes out, the Queen (played by Imelda Staunton), now having gotten satellite TV, realizes that there are hundreds of channels and nothing interesting to watch.  She asks her grandson, Prince William (played by Timothee Sambor), “Couldn’t we just find the BBC?” As the young prince flips through the channels, Shaggy’s music video for Boombastic is heard and seen playing.

The video, which was uploaded to Shaggy’s YouTube channel in 2009, currently has over 175 million views on the platform.

Interestingly, Shaggy and his frequent collaborator Sting had actually performed for the Royals at the late Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday party in 2018. The soirée was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England.

The most unexpected twist of the performance was a disregard of Royal protocol by the It Wasn’t Me singer, when he abandoned the stage to interact with the guests in the audience.

Mere days after the event, Sting revealed that Shaggy’s stunt was off-putting.

“(Officials said), ‘Whatever you do, don’t go into the audience,’ which is exactly what he did,” Sting recalled during an interview with Hello Magazine. “He was heading towards the royal box. I thought, ‘Please, no… That’s my Queen!'”

In Shaggy’s defense, he was just trying to get the party started.

“I was trying to high five, yo! But it was good, we had everyone up on their feet, including the Queen. It wasn’t the normal protocol, but you know, we got the party going. It was a good time,” Shaggy said at the time.

Adamant that Her Majesty approved of their set, Shaggy added: “I did see she… gave me a wink!”

Boombastic rose to prominence not only as a single and moniker for Shaggy, but also as a 1995 album of the same name, which earned him his first Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album. 

He won that Award again, with Sting, for their collaborative album 44/876 in 2018, and was recently nominated for the eighth time for Come Fly Wid Me, an album of Frank Sinatra covers produced by Sting. 

Boombastic (the single) is certified Platinum in the UK, for sales exceeding 600,000 units, and Platinum in the US, for sales exceeding 1,000,000 units.  The Boombastic album is certified Silver in the UK, for sales exceeding 60,000 units, and Platinum in the US, for sales exceeding 1,000,000 units.

Shaggy later released Best of Shaggy: The Boombastic Collection, a greatest hits compilation in 2008, which was certified gold in the United Kingdom (UK) on Friday, October 14, 2022, after it sold over 100,000 units.

The collection featured 19 songs from eight of Shaggy’s previous studio albums, including Boombastic and In the Summertime with Rayvon from Boombastic (1995), Angel and It Wasn’t Me from the multi-platinum Hot Shot (2001), Hey Sexy Lady and Strength Of A Woman from Lucky Day (2002), and Oh Carolina from Pure Pleasure (1993).

Netflix has renewed The Crown for a sixth and final season, which is expected to take place between the late 1990s and the early 2000s.