IT’S CHRISTMAS!
And we’ve decided to bless this site with a scandipop advent calender. So now every day from today until December 25th, we’ll be posting a Christmas tune from Scandinavia. There are plenty to choose from, as nobody does winter pop like the Nordics, and we’ll be presenting only our absolute favourites. Some uptempo, some downtempo. Some sublime, some ridiculous. But all amazing!
So a huge, warm, Merry Christmas to all of you from scandipop!
There really was no other way to start this whole thing than with ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’, by Shirley Clamp. Our favourite Christmas tune of all time (and we don’t even like the original!). To be honest, we don’t even know how the person who thought of this idea ever let it slip outside of his own sick thoughts and verbalised it to another human being. Let alone how it got brought up in the boardroom meeting – or approved – or actually recorded – OR RELEASED! What WERE they thinking?! The original is such a sacred song that stands for so much to so many people. Possibly the single biggest icon of warmhearted charity that has ever existed. We’ve all seen the video, the shocking images, and we all know why it was recorded in the first place. Every Christmas it’s a reminder to us all that there are those less fortunate than us elsewhere in the world, and that they need our help.
This version on the other hand……
It’s a complete bastardisation of everything that was sacred and sincere about the original. But oh, isn’t it just SO fabulous with it though?! The kitchen sink production adds a high energy dance beat, cheesy Steps synths, and massive Christmas bells aplenty. It’s the audio equivalent of everything that is tacky, commercial, and plastic about Christmas. And we absolutely adore it to our very core! Lyrcially, it’s all so shockingly innapropriate too. When Shirley sings the infamous ”well tonight thank God it’s them, instead of yooouuuu” bit, it’s not remorseful like it’s supposed to sound, it’s just pure cold blooded selfishness! And then when she sings ”and there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time’‘, it’s like she’s actually teasing, not lamenting. Not helped of course, by the fact that the bpm is raised at around this point too. And don’t even get us started on those ”clanging chimes of doom”!
Spectacular. Absolutely spectacular!
