Proud (Heather Small song)

"Proud"
Single by Heather Small
from the album Proud
B-side	"Don't Give Up the Fight" "Wonderful World"
Released	8 May 2000 (2000-05-08)[1]
Length	4:29
Label	Arista
Songwriter(s)	Heather Small Peter-John Vettese
Producer(s)	Peter-John Vettese Simon Climie Steve DuBerry Ollie Marland
Heather Small singles chronology
"Proud" (2000) "Holding On" (2000)
Audio sample
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Alternative cover
Cover art of the 2005 release.

"Proud" is the debut solo single by M People singer Heather Small, released on 8 May 2000. It was co-written with and produced by Peter-John Vettese, and is the title track of her debut album Proud. The song peaked at number 16 on the UK Singles Chart.^[2]

In 2000, the song was used in the closing montage of the BBC's coverage of the 2000 Summer Olympics. Five years later, it was adopted as the official theme for the London 2012 Olympic bid, and was featured in a widely seen promotional video for the bid.^[15] Re-released in honour of this, and due to the fact a new M People greatest hits titled Ultimate Collection, which also included two of Small's solo songs, was released the same year, the song returned to the UK Singles Chart peaking at number 33 and remaining in the Top 75 for two more weeks.^[16] In 2009, almost a decade after the song was first released, it gained new popularity thanks to the hit BBC sitcom Miranda, written by and starring Miranda Hart. The song was a source of one of the show’s most frequent running gags, whereby Miranda's best friend and colleague, Stevie Sutton (played by Sarah Hadland) would sing the song's chorus in the style of Small's voice as a motivational chant, whilst holding a cardboard cutout of Small on a wooden stick. Small herself subsequently appeared in a special sketch with the Miranda cast for Comic Relief in 2011 for Red Nose Day, and also sung the song at the climax of the show’s last ever episode, "The Final Curtain", aired on New Year's Day in 2015.