"When Will I Be Famous?" is a song by British boy band Bros. Written by Nicky Graham and Tom Watkins, "When Will I Be Famous?" was released as a single in November 1987. The following year, it peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, topped the Irish Singles Chart, and entered the top five in several other countries. "When Will I Be Famous?" would later appear on Bros' 1988 album, Push.

Critical reception

Richard Lowe of Smash Hits stated that "When Will I Be Famous?" is a "second rate" song which, in his point of view, was unlikely to be a hit. Retrospectively, Rolling Stone ranked the song at number 72 on their list of the "75 Greatest Boy Band Songs of All Time" in 2020. In 2017, ShortList's Dave Fawbert listed this song at number one on his list of the "Greatest Key Changes in Music History".

Chart performance

"When Will I Be Famous?" was a number-one single in Ireland, as well as reaching number two in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland. It entered the UK Singles Chart on 28 November 1987 at number 81, in an initial five-week chart run until the end of December. It re-entered the top 100 at number 51 on the week ending 3 January 1988, reaching number two four weeks later.

Track listings

UK and US 7-inch single, Japanese mini-CD single UK 12-inch single and European mini-CD single US 12-inch single Japanese CD mini-album

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history