Ecstasy, agitation, danger, love and revolution all feature in Robyn & Röyksopp’s epic new music video for Do It Again, filmed in Mexico.
Swedish pop queen Robyn and the Norwegian production duo Röyksopp – that some are calling “The electro-pop pairing of the year” – have delivered a powerful and dramatic video that goes so well with their equally powerful and dramatic single.
Director Martin de Thurah said: “I worked with the idea of ‘what is our heart’s desire?’—and I realised that no one in the world truly gets to live out their passions. We are all under some construct, whether you’re an atheist living in Denmark or a gay person in Russia.”
Although Robyn & Röyksopp are in the video, they’re just bit players in a much wider story. The sentiment that they embrace in this cinematic video could be summed up by the statement “Love is Revolutionary thing”.
Following along from their last video clip Sayit, the video is shot in black and white and follows the story of 3 groups: a group of rebels storming a castle, a pair of lovers, and a woman struggling out of a hospital bed.
For such a great dance track the video is quite surprising – most people would expect something a little more lighthearted than the music of a revolution. When “Robyn posted the video she commented: “This video stirs up a feeling of chaos which is what we talked about quite a bit when we wrote ‘Do It Again’.”
Do it Again has to be one of 2014’s best EPs – it’s a five-track, collaborative mini-album and the title track Do It Again is the latest single from the EP.
The high-octane disco-house track “Never Say Never” by Basement Jaxx now has a spectacularly insane video. It’s bizarre and brilliant at the same time, thanks to writer and director Saman Kesh. It has to be seen to be believed!
In an imaginary world where an incredible 72% of humans have stopped dancing, Jaxx Industries set out to “stimulate the world to dance again” by creating the Bluetooth-enabled, iTunes sync-able TW3RK-BOT, complete with self-lubricating, machine-washable Jaxx Buttocks. Hahahaha 🙂 we told you it had to be seen to be believed!
A team of Japanese scientists working in a futuristic space-like environment set about inventing a ‘bot’ that can twerk (surely this is bootics at this point, not robotics?). Speaking in Japanese the first scientist says: “Without dance there is no love. Without love there is no passion. Without passion there are no humans,” while the second starts reading out facts: “72% have stopped partaking in the art of dancing. And in 15 years, 98% of us will cease to dance.” (Thought-provoking stuff whilst we are all sitting on our backsides watching this video)
The video basically explores the R & D process that would be necessary in order to create a realistic bot that can twerk just like a human – from motion capture investigation through to the actual prototyping process.
Perhaps the video is a comment on our cultural obsession with twerking? Or just a bit of sci-fi fun? Either way it’s an extremely inventive and creative visual for a delicious dance track. It certainly whets the appetite for the goodies to come in the duo’s latest studio album Junto.
Watch Clean Bandit’s beautiful new video for ‘Come Over’ ft amazing UK reggae artist Stylo G. Be swept away to the frozen wilderness of the Arctic Circle and the sunshine of the Sahara.
The song has a wonderful carnival-like spirit – it’s a great dance number – you’ll fall in love with it before the end of the track! The single is taken from their debut album New Eyes, which is taking the world by storm.
Clean Bandit’s Grace Chatto explains, ‘It’s a song we collaborated on with the amazing UK reggae artist Stylo G. Making the track was a great experience. Stylo is hugely talented and whenever he walks into a room – either at rehearsals or in studio – his massive energy infects us all. He has this amazing charisma and is willing to do anything! He even took extra riding lessons especially for the video! There are some bashment elements in the drums, as well as a big violin line and steel pans; instruments we’ve used quite widely across our album New Eyes.’
As per usual the band filmed, directed, produced, and star in the video themselves. They are getting pretty good at this! Grace talks about the video: “We shot the video in two contrasting locations – Svalbard, a Norwegian island cluster in the Arctic Circle and Marrakech in Morocco. We wanted the contrast for the video of switching between the warm and cold climates, but also for the locations to have a unique identity about them as well. Svalbard has this incredible arctic desert, whilst Marrakech is the complete opposite with the Sahara and the Medina.”
2014 is a pretty good year for Clean Bandit. Their single “Rather Be” went to Nº1 on the UK singles charts and stayed there for 4 weeks, plus made the Top 10 in 25 countries. So far it’s sold over a million copies.
Clean Bandit are: Milan Neil Amin-Smith (Strings), Grace Chatto (Strings/Vocals), Jack Patterson (Bass, Sax, Decks) and Luke Patterson (drums).
Clean Bandit’s ‘Come Over’ is officially released on August 11.
Summer season has an abundance of encyclopedic festivals, ranging from music and film, food and yoga, to UFO Festivals and Wife Carrying Championships. Whatever you’re into, it’s out there… somewhere. We looked into some of the wackiest and unusual festivals organized this summer, some of which have become tradition in many places, attracting thousands of people from across the globe on an annual basis.
Boryeong Mud Festival is a mucky one that celebrates the healing properties of the local mud. The international phenomenon of the South Korean mud wonderland attracts a whole range of people who wish to take part in a Mr. Mud competition, mud wrestling, mud racing and mud boot camp (whatever that means?). As for the more “well groomed” festival-goers, they can opt for mud facials, body painting, pottery, soap-making, or lounging around and catching those rays of sun on the sandy beaches. Who wouldn’t want to participate in sliding, wrestling, massaging, and take photos whilst getting filthy in mineral-rich mud?
Aside from the muddy affair, Boryeong has a pop and hip-hop music line-up, parades, other cultural performances and fireworks on opening and closing night.
Jae-Sang Lee, Director of Korea Tourism Organization, says, “The most distinctive point of the Festival is to create a united place where people from all over the world come together, meet and interact with strangers and are able to break down walls of age, nationality, race and have fun together and leave with memories and new friends.”
Officially known as Fiesta de Santa Marta de Ribarteme, Spain’s Festival of Near-Death Experiences is similar to that of Mexico’s Día de los Muertos. The festival is held in Galicia, a region that had been somewhat isolated from the influences of Spain’s Catholic traditions for many centuries, and that developed a belief in witchcraft and evil spirits. Galicia has held on to its legacy, and continues to practice its primitive rituals. Santa Marta de Ribarteme (the sister of Lazarus who was brought back from the dead by Jesus), and the pilgrimage, is done in honour of Las Nieves’ patron saint of resurrection.
Despite the somewhat morbid processions, that involves those who claim to have had a near-death experience in the past year parade the streets whilst being carried sitting upright in their coffins, the afternoon fades into a wild evening of celebrations, filled with fireworks, brass bands, gypsy music, and street vendors selling religious memorabilia. After all, it’s a festival that celebrates life, not death.
Esala Perahera involves elephants, incense, drumming, and dancing, in honour of the Buddha’s tooth relic. The legend dates back to 1,700 years ago, when one of the Buddha’s teeth was stolen from his funeral pyre and smuggled into Sri Lanka. Today, the relic is stored and exhibited in the Temple of the Tooth, Dilada Maligawa, in Sri Lanka.
The festival is composed of a 10-day parade, with Hindu deities and elephants covered in beautiful silk costumes. A “water cutting” ceremony through the Mahaweli Ganga River is also held, as a ritual to divide the pure and the impure and to honour the water god for a fruitful year ahead. A goblet of that water is saved and used in the tree-planting ritual that marks the start of next year’s festival.
Filled with great intensity and colour, Esala Perahera is a great visual feast, a place for snapping shots and Instgramming pics.
“Nude Olympics, red dusty camping, thorny African scrub, oh, and lots of South African bands jamming in the veld”. Oppikoppi is South Africa’s largest music festival, with over 20,000 attendees. It showcases hip-hop, jazz, EDM, metal, soul, rock n’ roll and kwaito (a South African spin on house music and remixing tribal rhythms).
Like Burning Man and Nowhere Festival, with its “hippy, survivalist” feel, Oppikoppi is held in the middle of nowhere, near the Kruger National Park, on the African continent’s greatest nature reserve.
Like Roskilde, the festival hosts competitions, where winners can get passes to next year’s festival. The Dustbowl Olympics include Box Car Races, the Boom Street 500 Naked Dash (where no clothes are allowed but shoes are obligatory), Running of the Bewilderbeats (where you must wear a costume) and the Wil(d)abong Surf Classics (some sort of sand surfing game).
Although boiling hot days and freezing nights are memorable enough, witnessing the wildlife in Kruger Park will (hands-down) be an experience of a lifetime.
Obon is Japan’s most religious holiday and is somewhat similar to Asia’s Hungry Ghosts festival or Mexico’s Día de los Muertos. It is a place where spirits are lured back to their loved ones with lanterns, candles and dance. The festival is based on the Buddhist belief that the gates to Heaven and Hell open on the 15th day of the 7th month, allowing spirits to visit the living world.
Although the island is populated with around 250,000 people, almost 1.3 million people attend the event every year. Families come to visit ancestors’ graves with flowers and offer food and lanterns to many homes and altars. One of the most stunning rituals is the releasing of “toro nagashi” (floating lanterns) into the oceans, rivers and lakes, to carry the spirit of ones ancestors back to the afterlife. Many temples have candle-lit ceremonies, as fire is used in purification ceremonies.
Awa Odori takes place between August 13th and 15th at Tokyshima on Shikoku Island where there is street-dancing and an outburst of colour and culture. This part of the festival originated in 1586, and came with strict ancient rules: you can dance in the streets only on those 3 days, samurais can only dance at home with the doors closed, and no dancing is permitted at temples or with swords or masks. At Awa Odori, the two traditional forms of dancing are “Nagashi” (beautiful and calculated dancing in the daytime) and “Zomeki” (wild and unpredictable dancing at night).
Mount Hagen Cultural Show is a tribal gathering of feathers, mud and masks. “Unity in Diversity” is Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) motto. With an abundance of rare animal species, 841 documented languages, jungly rainforests and coral reefs, PNG (located practically off the map) is not a place for faint-hearted travelers, but a place for thick-skinned adventurers seeking to soothe their cultural curiosity.
Mount Hagen Cultural Show, held annually on the third weekend of August, is one of the biggest tribal gatherings (singsings) in PNG. Over 100 tribes share their cultural traditions, such as customs, dancing and music. They disguise themselves with anthropomorphic body paint, intricate headdresses, shell jewelry, boars’ tusks, skirts made from plants and fur, etc., and express themselves through music and dance. The tribe that receives the loudest applause from the crowd is the one that wins.
The World Bog Snorkeling Championships was included in the World Alternative Games, a list of strange outdoors events. Llanwrtyd Wells, in Dolycoed, was originally a tourist attraction for those seeking a health retreat, due to the medicinal qualities of the region’s sulfuric springs.
For you adventurer’s out there, who like to try new things and don’t mind getting extremely dirty, or for those of you who just aren’t good enough to enter the Olympics for swimming, then bog snorkeling is just for you! All you need are fins, a mask, snorkels and whichever kind of swimsuit tickles your fancy (from sexy Speedos, to a wetsuit or a costume).
Of course, the other requirement is to know how not to drown. From the beginning to the end of the 60-yard stretch of bogland, flipper power is the only way forward – no conventional swimming strokes are allowed (eg. crawl, breast stroke, butterfly). How about that? Knowing how to swim isn’t even a requirement!
The La Tomatina revolution is a wacky tomato throwing tradition held in the streets of Buñol, Spain. Over 30,000 people join in the food fight, launching and crushing over 130,000 kg’s of ripe and juicy tomatoes at one another. Although the tomatoes are the main event, La Tomatina is a week filled with a diversity of festivities, including the celebration of Buñol’s patron saints, the Virgin Mary and St. Louis Bertrand, along with a bunch of music, street parades and fireworks. With tradition comes more tradition – a gigantic paella is served on the eve of the main event, in preparation for battle.
No doubt, the festival is a shameful waste of food… so organisers have dedicated themselves to cultivate a special variety of inedible tomatoes solely for the annual event.
Evidently, like any festival that could get out of hand, some ground rules have been established: • To avoid injuries, tomatoes have to be squashed before throwing. • No other projectiles except tomatoes are allowed. • Participants have to give way to the trucks and lorries. • T-shirts must be worn throughout the festival. • No tomatoes can be thrown after the second shot fires. Inside La Tomatina Watch this video in Creation 5
The Air Guitar World Championships gives every one a chance at being a rockstar! No guitar is required; therefore no learning or mastering of an instrument is required either. Throughout the four-day event, workshops on how to best exaggerate picking motions are held, including demonstrations from previous world champions.
“Make Air not War” is the festival’s mantra. Apparently, the championships are held to promote world peace and, according to the promoters of the event, “wars end, climate change stops and all bad things disappear, if all the people in the world played air guitar”.
Due to the popularity of the festival, first hosted as a joke, the air guitar movement has travelled the world and competitions are now hosted across the globe.
Lisdoonvarna, a small rural community in Ireland, is the place that holds a one month-long mystical matchmaking festival, designed for people to find their soulmates, with the hope that they’ll catch the magical “luck of the Irish” bug. Call it the real life Match.com or the non-virtual form of Tinder; it’s a fun festival of dancing, drinking, betting, flirting, and “playing”. The festival originated over 150 years ago during the Great Irish Famine, when emigration from the farms accelerated and families would pay matchmakers large dowries to find wives for their young men.
Willy Daly, author of the book “The Last Matchmaker”, and member of Lisdoonvarna’s community, is known today as the king of the matchmakers. He is also known as “the horse whisperer of matchmaking”.
The festival, “Europe’s Biggest Single’s Event” attracts men and women from all over the UK and Europe. With one too many pints and cupid’s arrow ready to strike its prey right through the heart, perhaps Lisdoonvarna is where someone will find their great, great love.
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Congratulations to Rixton who have stormed straight to Nº1 on the UK Singles Charts with their debut release, Me And My Broken Heart.
The song is an upbeat, Maroon-5-ish groove that does not in the least bit suggest the breaking of any heart strings, apart from it’s title. The music video is intelligent and refreshingly humorous – in the style of a mini-movie.
The UK band, made up of frontman Jake Roche (vocals and guitar), Charley Bagnall (guitar), Danny Wilkin (bass and keyboard) and Lewi Morgan (drums) are celebrating their Nº1 by each having a matching broken heart tattoo to mark the occasion. Jake’s is going on his bicep, Charley’s will be inked on his rib, Lewi’s on his thumb and Danny’s will be going on his thigh, “so he will be able to hide it from [his] parents”.
“Being Number 1 is probably the biggest thing ever that has happened to us in our lives!” a thrilled Jake Roche told OfficialCharts.com. “And it means a lot because it’s in our home country, and that’s something that’s been the main goal for us, to really make an impact. It’s a dream. Thank you to everyone who has bought it for your support.”
Interesting fact: Frontman Jake Roche is the son of Shane Richie and former Nolan’s singer, Coleen Nolan. Although hs parents must be over the moon with his success, perhaps they might be a teeny bit jealous as well – Shane’s highest charting single was his cover of WHAM!’s I’m Your Man, which reached Nº2 in 2003 and the Nolans’ ‘I’m in The Mood For Dancing’ peaked at Nº3 in 1979. Jake is so sweet that his official Number 1 Award will be going to live on his Mum’s Mantlepiece.
The charismatic four-piece are getting a bit fed up with being called a boy band – although technically that’s what they are, of course. So how are they learning to live with the title? “We realised boybands get a lot of women.” Enough said!
Tomorrowland is the world’s most sought after and anticipated electronic music festival, well actually it’s in a category of it’s own as there is nothing quite like this magical festival anywhere in the world.
Held in Boom, Belgium (16 km south of Antwerp, 32 km north of Brussels), the festival runs over two weekends this year – 18–20 July and 25–27 July – in celebration of it’s 10th anniversary.
When the festival first started in 2005 it ran over 2 days and in 2011, to cope with the incredible demand, it expanded to three days. Tickets were completely sold out after just a few days of going on sale to 180,000 festival goers. This year 360,000 tickets were sold out within hours of them going on sale.
The line up this year is monstrous! Eric Prydz plays a 3-hour set on both Fridays, Hardwell and Tiesto go live on Saturday with a 30-minute set and Sunday sees the likes of David Guetta and Steve Aoki. Other artists include Laidback Luke, Armin van Burren, Redfoo, Bakermat, Dimitri Vegas, Krewella and many more.
Bear in mind that not every artist will be on the live stream. As per last year they will alternate between stages and artists with 30-40 minutes on each.
Back in April this year, MTV announced that it will produce two hour-long MTV World Stage specials featuring shows from the festival – to be aired in August – it will also produce a documentary about the 10th anniversary. Composer Hans Zimmer and Tomorrowland also announced that they are collaborating on the creation of a classical hymn that will debut during the festival.
The fame of the festival is spreading each year and now a US version called Tomorrowworld will run from September 26-28 in Georgia’s Chattahoochee Hills.
Today we are celebrating greatness, it’s Nelson Mandela International Day – Nelson Mandela would have been 96 years old today.
The UN General Assembly unanimously approved this day back in 2009. It was created as a way to honour Mandela and inspire others to carry on his efforts to “take responsibility for making the world a better place, one small step at a time,”.
In Johannesburg people are marking today with charitable acts in honor of the former president. Organizers have urged people to perform acts of charity for 67 minutes, symbolizing Mandela’s 67 years of public service. People are picking up litter, cooking at homes for the elderly and donating food, blankets and other basics to the poor.
Mandela died at 95 years of age on December 5, 2013, so this is the first time the day has been celebrated without Mandela. He was respected around the world for fighting minority rule in South Africa. After spending 27 years in prison he was released in 1990 by Mr De Klerk, South Africa’s last white ruler. He then went on to become the country’s first black president in 1994, a position he held until he stepped down in 1999.
In honour of Mandela’s birthday we have put together a musical tribute.
Eric Bibb – Mandela is free
Eric Bibb is an American-born acoustic blues singer-songwriter. He moved to Europe in 1970 and currently lives in Helsinki, Finland. Eric is a great guitar player and has a rich and soulful voice. His tribute to Mandela is soulful and inspiring. “Courage and Vision cannot be in prison”.
Hugh Masekela Bring Back Nelson Mandela
Hugh Ramopolo Masekela is a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, and singer. In 1987, this was a huge hit for Hugh Masekela, it became an anthem for the movement to free Nelson Mandela. At that time, the mere mention of the name ‘Mandela’ meant the song would be banned in his home country.
Hugh continues Mandela’s great work and is involved in several social initiatives. He serves as a director on the board of The Lunchbox Fund, a non-profit organization that provides a daily meal to students of township schools in Soweto.
Jive Soweto (El Rey David) Sipho Mabuse
Mandela loved music and dance and used it to unite people. South African music mpaqanda music (soul stew, zulu jive) is one of the most joyful in the world. It’s a testimony to the enduring nature of the human spirit that the most joyful music should come out of a country that has been beset with hatred, injustice & prejudice.
African Hymn – Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Choir, ZA
The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) choir has 55 members made up of students and alumni, all from different walks of life. Since its inception in 1994 the choir has gained a reputation for its unique ability to successfully interpret both Western and African repertoire.
Freshlyground – Doo Be Doo
Freshlyground is a South African Afro-fusion band, formed in Cape Town in 2002. The band members come from South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Their musical style is a harmony of traditional South African music (such as kwela and African folk music) with blues, jazz and a bit of indie rock. Doo Be Doo comes from their very successful album Nomvula, released in 2004. The initial success of the album was largely due to the feel-good ‘Doo Be Doo’, which enjoyed significant play on local radio.
The Specials – Nelson Mandela
Jerry Dammers: how I made Free Nelson Mandela: “The song said what I wanted it to say very clearly. At the time, there was a huge amount of opposition and propaganda directed against Mandela. Margaret Thatcher had described his party, the African National Congress, as a “terrorist organisation”. But in the days just after punk, record companies would never have refused to release something on the grounds it might be controversial. At the time, there were these two enormously influential record pluggers called Ferret’n’Spanner. They were big Specials fans and pushed the track at radio stations. If they hadn’t liked it, I don’t know if it would have been played on Radio 1……The concert at Wembley to celebrate his freedom was amazing. He went from being in prison to being mobbed. When he came on stage, the standing ovation lasted 10 minutes.”
This beautiful track was written by fellow southern African artist Dorothy Masuka and first released by Miriam Makeba in 1957 when she still lived in South Africa. It was released in the US in 1967 on her studio album of the same name, it peaked at Nº12 on Billboard. The song was originally written and sung in the Xhosa language – the song’s title means “touch touch” in English.
Under African Skies – Paul Simon
Taken from Paul Simon’s 7th studio album, Graceland, which won the 1987 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Paul Simon uses a galloping 4/4 time signature to tell the story of two musicians and how their earliest memories shaped themselves into the music they create. “Under African Skies,” is also a documentary by filmmaker Joe Berlinger made for the 25th anniversary of the Graceland album.
So happy birthday, Madiba. We will hold on to your memory, and try to live up to your legacy. Thank you!
Google have put together a wonderful doodle with lots of Mandela’s inspiring quotations: “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion.”
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Rizzle Kicks have released a funny new music video for their forthcoming single ‘Tell Her’.
You always expect a laugh with Rizzle Kicks and they don’t disappoint in this video – pint-sized versions of Jordan and Harley are cruising around in a remote control car, a la Toy Story.
The music video was directed by the Lennox Brothers, who have worked with the likes of Ellie Goulding, Coldplay, The Rolling Stones and Kasabian.
You probably recognise the track from the Wimbledon-themed video that they released during the tournament, featuring tennis icon Maria Sharapova.
Jordan “Rizzle” Stephens and Harley “Sylvester” Alexander-Sule are arguably the biggest hip-hop act in the UK at the moment with two top 10 albums under their belt, six top 20 singles and the eternal pop classic of ‘Mama Do The Hump’. Their latest album ‘Roaring 20s’ peaked at Nº3 on the UK albums charts.
They were signed to Island Records off the back of a home made YouTube video and their debut album ’Stereo Typical’ went platinum. It also earned the infamous title of the Second Most Illegally Downloaded Album in the UK (after Ed Sheeran’s +)
If you get the chance to see them live don’t miss it! They play with a full band, as opposed to the standard hip-hop turntables, and their shows are packed full of energy and party vibes.
‘Tell Her’ is set for UK release on August 11 through Island Records.
Nile Rodgers, co-founder of 1970’s disco-funk-soul band, Le Chic, has worked and collaborated with some of the most talented artist of the past and current generations, and has established a name for himself by producing a myriad of hit songs for the likes of Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna, Duran Duran, and Daft Punk.
Take a brief look into the long history of timeless music, written and produced by the incredible hit-making genius, Nile Rodgers.
Le Chic – “Good Times” (1979)
Le Chic, formed by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, released many hit songs, including: “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah) (1977), “Everybody Dance” (1977), and “Le Freak” (1978). “Good Times” (1979) was the lead track on Le Chic’s 1979 album Risqué, and was regarded as one of the most influential songs of the era. It has since become one of the most sampled tracks in the history of music.
Perhaps you’ll recognise musical influences, similarities, or samples, in Queen’s timeless tune “Another One Bites The Dust” (1980), The Sugarhill Gang’s famous “Rapper’s Delight” (1979), Daft Punk’s base-heavy electronic track “Around The World” (1997), and Blondie’s hit single “Rapture” (1980).
“Good Times” reached Nº1 on Billboard’s R&B singles for 1979 and is ranked at Nº229 on Rolling Stone’s list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Sister Sledge – “We Are Family” (1979)
Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards co-composed and produced Sister Sledge’s 1979 album “We Are Family”, which bore 3 massive hits – “He’s The Greatest Dancer”, “Lost In Music” (a disco classic) and “We Are Family”. The song in question went to Nº1 on the US R&B and Disco Charts in 1979, peaked at Nº2 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and was certified Gold.
Diana Ross – “I’m Coming Out” (1980)
“I’m Coming Out” was co-written and produced by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, for Diana Ross’ comeback Platinum-certified album “Diana” (1980). The track became the legendary Motown singer’s second hit single. Partly written with Ross’s gay fan-base in mind, the lyrics held another meaning for Ross as she was in the process of leaving Motown Records at the time. The song peaked at Nº5 on the US Charts and has been pinpointed as an unofficial gay pride anthem.
INXS – “Original Sin” (1983)
“Original Sin” was written by Michael Hutchence (keyboard) and Andrew Farriss (vocals) and produced by Nile Rodgers. The track features on INXS’ fourth album “The Swing” (1983). In 1984, the song reached Nº1 in Australia and became an international hit.
David Bowie – “Let’s Dance” (1983)
David Bowie hired Nile Rodgers to work on his 1983 album “Let’s Dance” after meeting him in a nightclub and talking to him about music. The collaboration was successful amongst a younger audience and resulted in the broadening of Bowie’s fan-base. The track became Bowie’s best-selling single reaching Nº1 in the UK, US and in many other countries around the world. Due to the success of Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” album, the British singer-songwriter attempted to cater to his new fans, not knowing who they were or what they wanted, and consequently suffered creatively in his next two albums.
Madonna – “Like A Virgin” (1984)
“Like A Virgin”, written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly and produced by Nile Rodgers, was the key instrument in shaping Madonna’s new image as a pop culture icon, and the trigger to setting her long-lasting career in stone. Rodgers altered her previously synthesized sound by using the same live musicians as the ones he used in his Chic albums. The song became Madonna’s first Nº1 single on Billboard Hot 100, topped the charts in several countries across the world, and sold over twenty million records. Madonna’s invincible, sexually unashamed and confident persona had a huge influence on the younger generation at the time.
Duran Duran – “The Reflex” (1984)
The success of Duran Duran’s biggest selling hit “The Reflex” had a lot to do with Nile Rodgers experimental use of sampling and funk. Despite “The Reflex” being their eleventh single, it was their second and final one to top the UK’s Singles Chart at Nº1. The track also became Duran Duran’s first single to hit Nº1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Rodgers went on to produce their “The Wild Boys” single, their 1986 album “Notorious” and numerous tracks on their 2004 album “Astronaut”.
Sister Sledge – “Frankie” (1985)
Written by Denise Rich and produced by Nile Rodgers, the single was released on Sister Sledge’s 1985 album “When The Boys Meet The Girls”. The sisters suggested the song to Rodgers, who refused to produce it upon hearing it, claiming he hated it. After singing it over and over again for a week, Rodgers went back to them, insisting they record it.
The single became a hit, reaching Nº1 on the UK Singles Chart and dominating for four consecutive weeks. On Sister Sledge’s side of the world, the single didn’t do as well. It was ranked at Nº75 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and at Nº32 on the Billboard R&B Chart.
Grace Jones – “I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect For You) (1986)
“I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect For You)” was released as the first single on Grace Jones’ eighth studio album “Inside Story” (1986). The song, co-written by Bruce Woolley and produced by Rodgers, became Jones’s biggest-selling hit and was her last to enter the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. The song is recognised for its exceptional vocal performance and complimentary classic guitar riff. The music video features cameo appearances from Jones’ friends, including Andy Warhol (only a few months before his death), Nile Rodgers himself and fashion designer Tina Chow.
Daft Punk – “Get Lucky”
Co-written by French house music duo Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers, “Get Lucky” was the lead single from Daft Punk’s fourth studio album “Random Access Memories” (2013). The disco-funk song reached the top 10 on the music charts of over 32 countries and has since sold in excess of 9.3 million copies. “Get Lucky” was the song that received the most amount of streams in one single day since the birth of Spotify and won Grammy Awards for Record of The Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.
Today, Sigma released their new music video for ‘Changing’ ft the fiery voice of Paloma Faith. It’s an epic dance track with big, booming vocals and orchestral sound, filmed in Miami’s colourful back streets.
‘Changing’ follows Sigma’s previous hit ‘Nobody to Love’, a rework of Kanye West’s “Bound 2”, which soared to the top of the charts in eight countries, including the UK. It has clocked over half a million sales (including streams) and over 30 million YouTube views.
Sigma, also known as Cameron Edwards and Joe Lenzie, have been really busy remixing everyone from Clean Bandit to Kiesza. They played at Glastonbury this year and have plenty more festival dates to keep them busy, including Global Gathering, Ibiza Rocks and Bestival. It looks like 2014 is their year!
