Why 'Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead' Was Banned After Margaret Thatcher's Death
Why 'Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead' Was Banned After Margaret Thatcher's Death
Will SayreSun, May 10, 2026 at 1:08 AM UTC
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Why 'Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead' Was Banned After Margaret Thatcher's Death
The most beloved song from The Wizard of Oz might go to Somewhere Over the Rainbow, but there are plenty of other hits from the 1939 classic.
One singalong that never fails to get stuck in fans' heads is "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead," which is often called the centerpiece of multiple songs in a sequence featuring the Munchkins, Glinda (Billie Burke) and Dorothy (Judy Garland).
"Ding-Dong" and the other numbers celebrate the death of the Wicked Witch of the East, as viewers will recall. Check out the timeless clip below.
The renowned musical — whose No. 1 fan might have been the late, great filmmaker David Lynch, but that's for another day — regained popularity amid the releases of the recent Wickedmovies.
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And 13 years ago, the "Ding-Dong" song in particular resurfaced on music charts for an unexpected reason. When Margaret Thatcher died in 2013, a campaign launched by opponents of hers on Facebook titled "Make Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead number one the week Thatcher dies," The Guardian reports. The 1939 track, credited to Garland, quickly became a top-10 success on midweek charts — and Ella Fitzgerald's 1961 cover version even saw increased sales.
Then came the radio bans. The song ultimately reached No. 2 in 2013, but the BBC decided not to play it in full on the Radio One chart show, per The Independent. A listener then complained saying that the move was "a breach of the requirement for impartiality" and had "compromised" the "integrity" of the chart.
In response to the complaint, the BBC Trust's Editorial Standards Committee said "the song had become linked with a campaign in the wake of Lady Thatcher's death to display opposition to her premiership and that it did have the capacity to cause offence because it had been widely publicised as being a way of giving voice to anti-Thatcher feelings."
This story was originally published by Parade on May 10, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
