Singer Namedrop

Singer Namedrop is when an artist or a band interweaves their name into the lyrics of one of their songs. Dropping one's name is a way to make listeners remember who sang the song. This can take a form of either simply saying the name (regardless of context), indicating that the song is about him or her, or introducing him or herself, usually in the hook.

Compare Creator Cameo and Title Drop. Related to "Special subcategory of bands named after one of their own songs" in Good Name for A Rock Band. Virtually present in a Boastful Rap. Sometimes evokes Third Person Person.

Examples of Singer Namedrop include:

Film

...You could be swinging on a star
Tommy?
Yes, Eddie?
You could be swinging on a star...

Music

  • Green Day had a song called "Green Day" on their début album.
  • Lady Gaga uses the word "gaga" often in her songs, like "Just Dance", "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)", "Bad Romance", "Monster", and "Judas". An example from "Bad Romance":

Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah!/Roma-roma-mamaa!
Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance.

    • In the song "Government Hooker:

Gaga, ga oh-ah
Gaga, ga oh-oh-oh
Io ritorne, io ritorne.
Io ritorne, io ritorne.

Jay, Rain Man is back with little Ms. Sunshine
Rihanna where you at?

  • Roxette does this in "Dance Away" and "Joyride".
  • The mention of "Denny Mclaren" in Don Mclean's cover version of "The Mountains of Mourne" is this, with a bit of stretching to fit the song's metre; in the original lyrics, it's "Peter O'Loughlin".
  • Metallica and Megadeth each have one. Metallica's in 'Whiplash'

We'll never stop
We'll never quit
Cos we're Metallica

    • Megadeth's is in 'Rattlehead': "Thrashing to Megadeth".
  • The Low Millions take this up a notch with their song "Low Millions".
  • Freddie Mercury does it in Queen song Crazy Little Thing Called Love and in his solo song Mr. Bad Guy. All four Queen members are mentioned in Invisible Man.
  • Chaka Khan's hit "I Feel for You" included a backup rapper who repeated her name dozens of times.
    • Ciera's Like A Boy. Ciera Princess Harris is another to use the tactic of having a backup singer repeat the lead vocalist's name "Uh, Ciera..." repeatedly.
  • Jet - "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" inserted the band's name as a word in a sentence, emphasizing it while singing:

Big black boots
long brown hair
She's so sweet with her
Jet black stare!

Well, I dreamt I saw you walking
Up a hillside in the snow
Casting shadows on the winter sky
As you stood there, counting crows.

  • In "Piano Man" by Billy Joel:

He says, "Bill, I believe this is killing me."
As his smile ran away from his face...

  • In "The Girl is Mine" duet with Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney, spoken lines include:

Paul: "Michael, we're not going to fight about this"
Michael: "Paul, I think I told you. I'm a lover not a fighter."

  • A few They Might Be Giants examples: "Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love," "Welcome To The Jungle" (Name's the Same as the Guns N' Roses song, but completely different otherwise), and "They Got Lost" all namedrop members of the band. The band in its entirety is name dropped in "They Got Lost" and, naturally, "They Might Be Giants."
    • From "When Will You Die":

This is Dan, and that's Dan
And there's Marty on the drums
To complete the band

And I'm John, and he is also John
And all of us are wondering
When you're gonna die

    • "Mr. Xcitement" starts with John Flansburgh listing the band name and guest appearances on the song to some canned applause: "Let it be known... They Might Be Giants. Doughty. The Elegant Two. Mr. Xcitement". In turn, Mike Doughty mentions "Flansy" (a Fan Nickname for Flansburgh) in one of the verses of the same song.
    • When they released "Can't Keep Johnny Down" Linnell and Flansburgh made a point in interviews of distancing themselves from the song's Jerkass Unreliable Narrator.
  • Jessie J drops her name in the hook of "Do It Like A Dude", in the second verse of "Nobody's Perfect", and uses her first name in "Who's Laughing's Now".
  • Britney Spears :The opening of Gimme More features: "It's Britney, bitch!"
  • The rapper's repeated "Shakira, Shakira" in Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie". In fact, it's rare to find a song with Wyclef Jean in which he doesn't namedrop everyone involved.
  • In "Hey Paula" by Paul and Paula, the singers address each other by name.
  • P!nk does this, in "Cuz I Can"

P.I.N.K. P.I.M.P.
I'm back again
I know y'all missed me

Your record collection don't exist
You don't even know who Liz Phair is.

  • MTRKRFT's "Bounce" uses the group's name twice in the beginning.
  • At the top of Ma Rainey's "Black Bottom," an announcer-type says, "You've heard the rest, now I'm gonna show you the best. Ma Rainey's gonna show you her Black Bottom." Also, during the song itself Ma references herself by name a time or two.
  • Jimi Hendrix, "Fire"

Move over Rover
And let Jimi take over

  • Tony Sheridan with backup by The Beatles in his cover version of "Sweet Georgia Brown."

In Liverpool, she even dared
To criticise the Beatles' hair
With their whole fan club standing there

  • Coheed and Cambira's "Elf Tower New Mexico" has the line "See, there's Coheed, and then Cambria...", and their old name "Shabutie" is said in the beginning of "Devil in Jersey City".
  • Doctor Steel drops his name into his songs "Dr. Steel" and "The Dr. Steel Show".
  • In Band Aid's "Do they Know It's Christmas?" Sting gets a line about "the bitter sting of tears."
  • Wolfgang Gartners Get 'em ft Eve contains both "Wolfgang" and "E-v-e" (spelt out).
  • One of Fall Out Boy's songs is called "I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me". The title is never actually sung though.
  • Kant Kino 's song "We Are Kant Kino".
  • "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang. Almost every verse ends with the rapper calling upon the next one by name to do his verse.
  • The Chicago Bears "Superbowl Shuffle:"

We are the Bears Shufflin' Crew
Shufflin' on down, doin' it for you

And each verse's first line is "My name is X" or "They call me Y" or similar as the individual players do their part.
  • The chord sequence in ACDC's "High Voltage" is A, C, D, C.
  • Steely Dan's "Show Biz Kids" includes the line "They got the Steely Dan t-shirts".
  • David Allan Coe's "You Never Even Called My By My Name:"

I've heard my name a few times in your phone book
And I've seen it on signs where I play
But the only time I know I'll hear "David Allan Coe"
Is when Jesus has his final Judgment Day

  • Danni Leigh's "Somebody Oughta Do Something About That Girl"'s final verse ends with,

I hope no one ever pointed and said,
'Danni Leigh's the one wrecking his world,'
Sayin', 'Somebody oughta do something about that girl.'

  • MIDI Mafia decided to do a Producer Name Drop when they produced a Justin Bieber song, leading many to wonder why one of his songs started with a creepy voice whispering mafia...
  • In a somewhat similar vein, Ark Music Factory does a Studio Name Drop at the beginning of "Friday" by Rebecca Black.
  • Folk singer Eric Bogle introduces himself in song at the start of his concerts. One version goes:

My name is Eric, some folk call me Eck,
Call me Ricky and I'll break your neck,
If you're feeling formal, Mr Bogle will do,
But to my friends it's Eric, and I hope that means you.

  • Jason. Derulo. Every song starts with his name, regardless of what the rest of the song is about.
  • Escape Club's Wild Wild West has a line in which they say their name.
  • Beastie Boys, "Fight For Your Right":

Your mom busted in and said, "What's that noise?"
Aw, mom you're just jealous, it's the Beastie Boys

  • Naughty By Nature, "Hip Hop Hooray":

I did your partner cause she's hot as a baker
Cause I'm Naughty By Nature, not cause I hate cha

  • Bob Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody": "You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy"
  • Big & Rich:
    • "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" features the line "havin' ourselves a big and rich time."
    • "Filthy Rich" changes from a normal Title Drop to "everybody's trying to get big and rich..." for the final lines.
    • "Rollin' (The Ballad of Big & Rich)" has an interlude by Cowboy Troy that ends by declaring that he's "rolling with the brothers Big & Rich!" Also, this:

I'm a crazy son of a {{[[[Sound Effect Bleep]] bad word}}]
But I know I'm going to make it big and rich...

Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky and Mike
If I love the girl, who cares who you like?

  • "I am Nicki Minaj, I mack them dudes up..."
  • Drake does this pretty often, but he usually calls himself "Drizzy". One example is in "Successful" with the line 'Drizzy, oh yeah Trey I fucking feel you"
  • Sort of done in Julia Nunes' "Fair Weather" (with an Album Title Drop in the same line): "Julia, just settle down". In context, the lyric is supposed to be someone else addressing her though.
  • Tag Team's "Whoomp! There It Is" has some instances - the intro names the group and lists their members, and then there's "Tag Team, back again". The bowdlerized version adds one more by changing "make this motherfucking party hype" to "make this Tag Team party hype".
  • Barenaked Ladies slip the word "barenaked" into "Be My Yoko Ono".
  • This trope is so endemic in Latin tropical and urban music, that in some genres it would be easier to name the musicians that hadn't engaged on it.
    • Dominican merengue and its derivative technomerengue had this very bad. If you are listening a song and don't know if the song is from Wilfrido Vargas or Kinito Mendez, or if is by Proyecto Uno or Ilegales, just wait 30 seconds; they will make it knonw.
    • Reggaeton may be worse, because the genre is dominated by duos, and even single performers tend to do a lot of duets and collaborations with other artists.
      • LUNY TUNES! [1]
    • Salsa singers and orchestras tend to combine this trope with a band's Catch Phrase.
  • Tally Hall: “Welcome to Tally Hall” (obviously)
  • Pixie Lott and Jason Derulo do this for each other at the beginning of "Coming Home".
  • BTS name themselves (as a band) on "Attack on Bangtan/Rise of Bangtan", "Boys With Fun", "Not Today", "Anpanman" and some of their rap Cyphers, although by their Korean band name rather than their western initialism. They also introduce some members individually in some other songs.
  • Pitbull does a variation in that he don't use his artistic name but his self-nickname Mr. Worldwide.
  • LMFAO mention themselves in "With You" and "Sexy and I Know It."
  • Eddie Cochran had a tendency to insert his own name into songs, even covers such as "Hallelujah, I Love Her So".
  • HIM: While not a song they themselves wrote, 'Solitary Man' sports a heavily pronounced "Him" at the end of one line and is further emphasized in their music video.
  • Wang Chung's One Hit Wonder Everybody Have Fun Tonight and its embedded Station Ident "everybody Wang Chung tonight"


Web Original

Tenerance Love : My name is Tenerance Love, plus my name is Tenerance Love, minus my name is Tenerance Love equals my name is Tenerance Looove, remainder threeee!

Western Animation

We're Party Posse, we rule the earth
The Greatest band since music's birth

  • Arthur, "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll." After Francine starts a rock band called U Stink, Arthur, George, and Buster start a band called "We Stink". The only verse of their only song that we hear is:

Our name's We Stink
We like to play Rock and Roll

  1. ↑ The name of a duo of reggaeton performers/producers, who are not shy of make you know whose songs they tinkered with, and given they are the most popular producers in the genre those are a lot.
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