Year: 2022

You could be forgiven for thinking that darts players put as much effort and practice into their pre-match walks-ons as they do for the matches themselves.

This is understandable given how entrances have become an integral part of the game; they help to create the atmosphere that draws thousands of fans from every part of the world to the biggest tournaments.

Often based around a player’s nickname, a good walk-on should further establish their character, while getting the crowd buzzing and psyching out opponents. To that end, it’s critical to choose the right music to set the perfect tone.

Perhaps the most important thing about a walk-on is that it should be fun; a bit like riding a Segway to the tune of Shakira’s Waka Waka, as trademarked by South Africa’s Devon Petersen.

A list of Darts Walk Up Songs

Before we get started with the best walk on themes in darts, here are some of the notable darts walk on songs from some of the most popular players. Note that sometimes that players will change their walk on song’s so this list may not be 100% complete.

On that note, here are our top darts walk-ons of all time.

Updated: 9th of April, 2022

10. Peter Manley

Old One Dart himself, long since retired, used to make his way into battle to the tunes of Tony Christie’s “Amarillo.”

Appropriately enough, the 2003 PDC Las Vegas Desert Classic winner always cut more of a Peter Kay vibe, which more than likely helped him gain popularity with the crowd that outstretched his match performances at the time.

The song played as Manley would triumphantly bowl into the hall, backed by a chorus of pantomime boos that played into his ferocious on-stage persona that got everyone involved.

9. Wayne Mardle

Hawaii 5.0.1, otherwise known as Wayne Mardle, likes to add a touch of the exotic to proceedings when he prepares to step up to the oche.

Regularly draped in a floral Hawaiian shirt and Lei, Mardle enters the arena shaking his hips away to the theme tune from the 1980s US TV show Hawaii 5.0 which never fails to get the crowd jumping.

Nowadays a Sky Sports commentator, Mardle himself rates Phil Taylor’s theme as his personal favourite, but when it comes to his own game favours the loud and lairy look of the exotic despite himself hailing from the far less tropical town of Dagenham.

8. Gary Anderson

You might be expecting one nicknamed “The Flying Scotsman” to walk out to bagpipes or The Proclaimers, but instead two-time world champion Gary Anderson chooses to make his entrance to the tune of “Jump Around” by House Of Pain. 

A World Cup of Darts winner alongside Peter Wright in 2021, Anderson is one of the biggest names in the game. Anderson hails from Musselburgh in Scotland and has eight PDC titles to his name, including one World Matchplay and a pair of Premier League Darts titles.

7. James Wade

Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town” is the music that James Wade walks on to. Known in darts as “The Machine,” Wade, who hails from Aldershot, became the youngest player to ever win a major PDC title, when he successfully took down the darts World Matchplay in 2007. The Machine was just 24 at the time, although this record no longer stands and has since been broken by Michael van Gerwen. 

He has never been a world champion and has never even reached a final at the Ally Pally, but in all, Wade has won eleven PDC majors, putting him third in the all-time list behind Phil Taylor and van Gerwen. You could say that he is the best player never to win a PDC World Championship. Yet.

6. Michael Van Gerwen

Arguably the greatest player after Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor, Michael van Gerwen is certainly the best and most successful darter of the past decade. Going by The “Green Machine,” MVG has also been dubbed Mighty Mike and has collected three PDC World Championships, five Darts Premier League titles and a brace of World Matchplay Darts titles among a host of other PDC televised majors.

He was also world number one from 2014 until he was finally usurped at the top of the PDC Order of Merit by Gerwyn Price. “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes is the walk on music of choice for this Dutchman who hails from Boxtel near Eindhoven in Holland.

5. Michael Smith

Hailing from St Helens, Michael Smith has never won a PDC major but has come runner up on an infuriating seven occasions. We are sure he will get over the line at some point though as he is such a natural darter. In fact, he is one of the fastest in the PDC. 

While some players take their time over their throws or have weird little practises like twisting them in the figures – James Wade we’re looking at you – the high scoring Bully Boy just steps up to the oche and reels off his arrows as smooth and as calm as you like. There is nothing smooth about his walk out music though which is “Shut Up And Dance With Me” by Walk The Moon.

4. Jonny Clayton

Jonny ‘The Ferret’ Clayton burst onto the scene in 2020 when he won the World Cup of Darts with Wales next to his fellow Welshman Gerwyn Price. Since then, he hasn’t looked back and in 2021 added the UK Open and The Premier League of Darts to his collection. Now, he is comfortably in the world’s top darters and is one of the favourites for every competition. 

But what does The Ferret walk out to? Why, “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry of course. By the way, he is called The Ferret from his Rugby playing days and he has promised to tattoo the animal on his body if he becomes the World Champion.

3. Peter Wright

Pitbull’s “Don’t Stop the Party” is the marching tune of choice for Scottish nutter-chucker Peter “Snakebite” Wright when he strides into a heads-up.

While the world number one has consistently chopped and changed his look, hair, shirts and even his darts over the years, one thing he never messes with is his trademark walk-on music. Wright whips the crowd into a frenzy better than anyone with his bouncing, arm-shaking, fist-pumping routine which all comes wrapped up in a blur of ultra-bright colours.

A standout entrance for Snakebite occurred at the 2015 European Darts Open in Dusseldorf when Devon Petersen, of Segway fame (who impersonated Raymond van Barneveld’s walk-on), joined in with Wright’s boogie, leaving the pair jigging and twerking at each other – making the whole thing seem like some kind of a weird and slightly wobbly mating ritual. Snakebite is a two time PDC World Champion.

2. Gerwyn Price

One of the top performers in world darts, Gezzy as he is known to his friends is a former world champion and the self made bad boy of darts. Ok, so he’s not actually that bad but he does get booed everywhere he goes, except maybe when he plays in his home nation of Wales.

In fact, the only thing more recognisible that he is about to walk on than the boos from the crowd, is his walk on song, “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice. But then, what else could a player nicknamed The Iceman walk out to?

We’re not sure if it’s permanent, but Price surprised fans by walking on to “Roar” by Katy Perry during Night 10 of the Darts Premier League.

1. Phil Taylor

Having been selected for him by a Sky Sports floor manager, Phil “The Power” Taylor’s walk-on song is the stuff of darts legend.

According to history, a CD of “I’ve Got the Power,” a 1990 single from German band Snap, was stepped on and broken by said floor manager, Martin Turner, who then christened Taylor with his now famous moniker.

Despite being a firm crowd favourite and one of the most distinctive walk-on songs in all of darts – made even more fun with a pair of comedy glasses and a cowboy hat – sixteen-time world champion Taylor has admitted to asking Robbie Williams to write a replacement walk-out tune for him.

Taylor says he has grown tired of his current one which, given all the finals The Power has reached over the past twenty years, is understandable. Turner, by the way, introduced the walk-on which helped make today’s game what it is as well playing an all-important role in the ascension of the greatest modern-day player of them all.