# Firestarter (The Prodigy song)

"Firestarter" is a song by British electronic dance music band the Prodigy, released on 18 March 1996 by XL Recordings as the first single from their third album, The Fat of the Land (1997). It was co-written and produced by Liam Howlett and features vocals by Keith Flint. It also was the group's first number-one single on the UK Singles Chart, staying on top for three weeks, and their first big international hit, topping the charts in the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, and Norway. The music video was directed by Walter Stern and filmed in the London Underground, in black-and-white. Melody Maker ranked the song number two in their list of "Singles of the Year" in 1996. 24 years later, The Guardian ranked it number eight in their list of "The 100 Greatest UK No 1 Singles".

## Composition

The songwriting credits include Kim Deal of alternative rock group the Breeders, as the looped wah-wah guitar riff in "Firestarter" was sampled from the Breeders' track "S.O.S." from the album Last Splash. The drums are sampled from a remix of the song "Devotion" of the group Ten City. The "hey" sample is from the 1984 song "Close (to the Edit)" by Art of Noise. Then-members Anne Dudley, Trevor Horn, J. J. Jeczalik, Gary Langan and Paul Morley also receive songwriting credits. The "Empirion Mix", which does not include these samples, is credited solely to Liam Howlett and Keith Flint.

## Critical reception

Martin James from Melody Maker wrote, "'Firestarter' finds onstage dancer, MC and man of scary eye make-up Keith Flint delivering his first vocal performance and...it's not really up to much. A 60-Marlboros-a-day growl more suited to guitar-drenched cider punk than The Prodigy's fast and furious cyber punk. Never mind though, because musically this cut finds the boys slamming through an exhilarating, breakbeat techno theme for snowboarding freestylers. Half-pipe hardcore — you know the score." A reviewer from Music Week gave "Firestarter" top score of five out of five, and named it Single of the Week and a "Powerful return for the kings of live techno." Gerald Martinez from New Sunday Times noted its "heavy metal meets techno-dance stylisations". Brad Beatnik from the Record Mirror Dance Update described it as "a typically searing chunk of heavy techno featuring some manic vocale and an awesome synth line". He concluded, "Straight in the Top 10, no question, and destined to be pounded in the clubs." Writing for Pitchfork in 2005, Jess Harvell said, "'Firestarter' sounds like Trent Reznor in one of his all-too-rare moments of self-aware humor, like the Bomb Squad at +5 with a pink-haired British bulldog bellowing about how tuff he is." DJ Freshy-D of Smash Hits gave it four out of five, saying, "Mad metal guitary bits, scary vocals and the bangin'est of beats make for a momentous indie-dance track! Hey, 'Firestarter' even manages to make the Chemical Brothers sound soft... LET'S ROCK!" David Sinclair from The Times noted, "A racing, twitchy, all-hands-on-deck rhythmic pulse, with a first beat in the bar that lands like a bodyblow, it is spiced up by a siren-wail synth sound and various shrieks that resemble an Art of Noise vocal sample."

## Music video

The accompanying black-and-white music video for "Firestarter" was directed by English director Walter Stern and was filmed in an abandoned London Underground tunnel at Aldwych.

## Impact and legacy

In December 1996, Melody Maker ranked "Firestarter" number two in their list of "Singles of the Year", writing, "Bringing vague but keenly felt terror to a million living rooms, "Firestarter" was superbly ominous, a funny, freakish and pulse-quickening rumble through the tunnels of the psychotic mind." In October 2011, NME placed it at number 52 in its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years". In 2017, Billboard ranked "Firestarter" number 25 in their list of "The 100 Greatest Pop Songs of 1997". Following Keith Flint's death on 4 March 2019, fans used the hashtag 'Firestarter4Number1' on various social media platforms to replicate the song's success by getting it to the number one spot again. This was done out of respect for Flint and to raise awareness of suicide among men. During this time the single also returned to the Billboard charts, entering number 13 on its Dance/Electronic Digital Songs Sales chart in its 16 March 2019 issue, marking the first time that this song has appeared on a Billboard dance chart. In June 2020, The Guardian ranked "Firestarter" number eight in their list of "The 100 Greatest UK No 1 Singles". In July 2022, Rolling Stone ranked it number 110 in their list of "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time". "Firestarter" was also used in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 reveal trailer.
The song was used in the 2024 film Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

## Certifications

| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
| Finland (Musiikkituottajat) | Gold | 6,452 |
| New Zealand (RMNZ) | Platinum | 10,000$^*$ |
| Sweden (GLF) | Gold | 15,000$^^$ |
| United Kingdom (BPI) | 2× Platinum | 1,200,000$^‡$ |
| United States (RIAA) | Gold | 500,000$^^$ |
| $^*$ Sales figures based on certification alone. $^^$ Shipments figures based on certification alone. $^‡$ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |||

## Release history

| Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
| United Kingdom | 18 March 1996 | 12-inch vinylCDcassette | XL | |
| Japan | 22 May 1996 | CD | Avex Trax | |

## Cover versions

"Weird Al" Yankovic created a loose parody of "Firestarter", titled "Lousy Haircut", for an episode of The Weird Al Show; he could not do a full parody of the song as the network CBS did not want to pay royalties to the Prodigy. The song has also been covered by Jimmy Eat World, Gene Simmons of KISS, Torre Florim of De Staat, Sepultura, Papa Roach, and Kristina Esfandiari under her project NGHTCRWLR. A cover has also been created for the video game Just Cause 3 by Torre Florim.