Well, it’s been a while since I’ve post about Nicola Roberts but she has become no less amazing in the intervening time; if anything more so. And the world appears to be taking notice. And ripping her off.
Above is a poster from the window display at an Aldo on Robson Street here in Vancouver. The likeness and style are striking in their similarity to one Ms. Nicola Roberts. She literally has never stepped a promotional foot on this continent and yet I see her doppelgänger staring at me from a reasonably priced shoe emporium! Such is the power of Nicola Roberts.
Case in point number two for Nicola’s cultural dominance is Madonna’s recent single “Give me All Your Luvin” which blatantly riffs on the L! O! V! E! from the world-shattering – and vastly superior – Beat of my Drum.
Madonna’s instantly passé attempt just can’t live up to the sheer joie de vivre of Nicola screaming LOVE at us. While Nicola’s is a call to arms, Madonna’s is an old woman begging us to LUV her. Very different, and frankly endemic of Madonna’s recent career but that is a topic for another day. What continues to amaze is how a woman that released the most exciting debut single of 2011, and it’s followup, manages remain on the frays on mainstream culture.
Even when it was clear that the wheels had kind of fallen of the album campaign and Nicola was not about to “break” the mainstream she released Yo-Yo, a song 47 times better than anything on the Lana Del Ray album. And still the Top 40 eludes her. One can only hope that the cultural wave of Nicola is just beginning to crest and that imitation really is the best form of flattery. Be ready world.
