Girls who want boys
Who like boys to be girls
Who do boys like they’re girls
Who do girls like they’re boys
Always should be someone you really love
In 1994, Britpop titans Blur released the monster hit Girls and Boys, a wry observation of sexual roles, the freedom of sexual preference, and the state of chaos that ensues. Damon Albarn’s inspiration for the disco-flavoured, G-minor anthem came to him when vacationing in Spain and observing the tourist scene’s penchant for casual hookups. Graham Coxon explained to NME that the track was “a song that you find funny and which audiences respond to. Mainly because there’s nothing too complicated about it and it’s got a chanty sort of chorus and it has these strange sexual connotations. It’s a disco beat with lyrics about holidays and sex. It’s a total laugh.”
Nearly thirty years later, Nouvelle Vague (comprised of Olivier Libaux and Marc Collin), with longtime collaborator and vocalist Mélanie Pain, has taken the old oi-oi jokiness out of the song and transformed it into a glistening, nostalgic dreamscape of the beauty and growing pains associated with the expression of gender fluidity.
Singer Mélanie Pain has covered the song live for years, and this collaboration with Nouvelle Vague is magnificently subdued and gentle, taking the song from a raucous romp to the tender moments of blossoming friendship and the blurring of gender roles. She and Marc Thirouin directed the delightfully wholesome accompanying video. The clip narrates a tale of unbridled, youthful spirits finding each other on the streets as they proceed to frolic about in mischievous joy and androgynous clothing. This interpretation meshes the divine masculine and feminine, reintroducing the interplay between guys, gals, and nonbinary pals. When all is said and done, life comes down to being with “someone you really love,” a beautiful lesson from the karmic wheel.
Watch the video below:
The song is out now through Kwaidan Records.
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Follow Mélanie Pain:
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