Irish Comedian Wants Shaggy’s ‘It Wasn’t Me’ Played At His Funeral

There is a melancholic mood that comes with funerals, and Irish comedian David O’Doherty wants no part in that when he dies. In fact, he wants Shaggy’s 2000 megahit It Wasn’t Me played as part of the musical tributes at his funeral service.

According to The Guardian, O’Doherty said that his ‘unorthodox’ desire is to lighten the mood among attendees.

“I think it would be an interesting experiment to play a song that no one could possibly cry at if they heard it. I think that song is It Wasn’t Me by Shaggy.”

As a second choice, he added, “Or else I would play an Ireland world cup song from 1990, when we were very good at football, called Give It a Lash Jack, which encouraged Jack Charlton to give it a lash. No one could possibly cry at that.”

O’Doherty has won many international awards including the if.comedy award in 2008 and Best International Comedian at the 2014 Sydney Comedy Festival.  He’s described himself as “a failed jazz musician, scrambling about for something else to do with his life” and often combines his comedic performance with tunes played on his miniature electronic keyboard.

It Wasn’t Me appeared on Shaggy’s fifth studio album, Hot Shot, and featured vocals from Rickardo “RikRok” Ducent. The lyrics of the song depict one man (Rikrok) asking his friend (Shaggy) what to do after his girlfriend caught him cheating on her with “the girl next door”. His friend’s advice is to deny everything, despite clear evidence to the contrary, with the phrase “It wasn’t me.” The beat was produced by producer Sting International, who also produced Mr. Boombastic and Oh Carolina.  Sting used three main instruments: two horns, a violin, and a bass drum to create the beat for It Wasn’t Me.

The single has been regarded as Shaggy’s breakthrough in the pop market.  It is his highest-charting song to date, topping the charts in Australia, Austria, Flanders, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It was the best-selling single of 2001 in the UK, selling over 1.15 million copies that year.

To celebrate Hot Shot‘s 20th-anniversary last year, Shaggy released Hot Shot 2020 which included updated versions of the biggest hits from the album including It Wasn’t Me, which got fresh vocals from Rayvon.

The song received another new spin when Shaggy joined actors Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher for the Cheetos Super Bowl LV commercial earlier this year.