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"Parklife" is a song by the English rock band Blur, released as the third single from their third studio album, Parklife. It contains spoken-word verses by the actor Phil Daniels, who also appears in the music video.
"Parklife" reached No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 30 in Ireland. It won British Single of the Year and British Video of the Year at the 1995 Brit Awards and was also performed at the 2012 Brit Awards. The Massed Bands of the Household Division performed "Parklife" at the London 2012 Olympics closing ceremony. The song is one of the defining tracks of Britpop, and features on the 2003 compilation album Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Brit Pop.
According to Graham Coxon, the song was sarcastic, rather than a celebration of Englishness. He explained the song "wasn't about the working class, it was about the park class: dustbin men, pigeons, joggers – things we saw every day on the way to the studio Maison Rouge in Fulham" and that it was about "having fun and doing exactly what you want to do".
Phil Daniels had been approached to recite a poem for "The Debt Collector", but Damon Albarn could not find a poem he liked and made the song into an instrumental. Daniels was asked to sing lead vocals on "Parklife" instead. He reinvigorated the band, who had grown tired of working on the track. Daniels was unfamiliar with the band, but after talking to Albarn, he accepted the job. The recording in the studio took about forty minutes. Daniels opted for a cut of the royalties rather than being paid upfront. Daniels said of the song, "You never knew exactly what the song was about, and I still don't, which is part of the magic of it."
Despite what is commonly believed, the song does not refer to Castle Park in Colchester, the town where the band hails from. According to Albarn when introducing the song during their July 2009 Hyde Park performance, "I came up with the idea for this song in this park. I was living on Kensington Church Street, and I used to come into the park at the other end, and I used to, you know, watch people, and pigeons…", at which moment Daniels appears onstage. Daniels also performed a rendition of the song at the band's headline slot at Glastonbury Festival 2009 and at the band's second Hyde Park concert in August 2012, at the 2012 Brit Awards, and at both of the band's concerts at Wembley Stadium in July 2023, where he emerged from a tent brought onstage for the preceding song, "Country House".
A number of newspaper articles about the young middle classes' adoption of Estuary English appeared during the single's chart run, including one in The Sunday Times on the day the song entered the singles chart (although Daniels' accent is more obviously cockney).
The song played a part in Blur's supposed feud with fellow Britpop band Oasis at the 1996 Brit Awards when the Gallagher brothers, Liam and Noel, taunted Blur by singing a drunk rendition of "Parklife", mimicking Albarn's accent (with Liam changing the lyrics to "Shite-life" and Noel shouting "Marmite") when the members of Oasis were collecting the "Best British Album" award, which both bands had been nominated for
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