Dear Daily Mail
Dear Daily Mail is a feminist song by the American singer Amanda Palmer , written by her for a performance at The Roundhouse in London on July 12, 2013, and performed by her there. The song was in response to the Daily Mail's coverage of her performance at Glastonbury Festival the previous month, when she involuntarily exposed a nipple . During the song, designed as an open letter to the newspaper, Palmer took off her kimono and played the song completely undressed.
Background and appearance
The song Dear Daily Mail was written in response to coverage by the British newspaper Daily Mail about her appearance at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2013, during which she involuntarily exposed a nipple . The newspaper focused solely on this mishap in its article, written by an anonymous reporter and illustrated with a photo of her breast, and used it to criticize the artist's style and demeanor:
"She's never afraid to make a statement but Amanda Palmer made a bit of a boob of herself on stage at Glastonbury. The singer saw her breast left on show after it escaped her bra, while performing at the music event on Friday. "
The Daily Mail didn't say a word about the concert or Palmer's music. Amanda Palmer took this as an opportunity to compose a song before her concert at The Roundhouse in London and to formulate it as a sung open letter to the newspaper. According to her own words during the concert, she wrote it right before the performance and only finished it half an hour before it.
During the performance, she referred directly to the Daily Mail article that her nipple had escaped her brassiere and sang that her entire body was now trying to escape from the kimono she was wearing for the performance. With these words, she took off the kimono and continued her performance completely naked. When the audience did not want to calm down, she called out to them:
"Shhh, it's just a naked woman."
Music and content
Dear Daily Mail is a song performed in waltz time and only with your keyboard as an accompaniment. The song A Waltz for Eva and Che from the musical Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice served as a musical template .
The text is aimed directly at the Daily Mail, which is addressed in the title and at the beginning of each stanza with "Dear Daily Mail". Palmer herself referred to it in her blog post the day after the concert, in which she also published the lyrics of the song, as her open letter to the newspaper. In the first verse, she mentions that she has taken note of the coverage of her performance at Glastonbury Festival, but she is amazed that the newspaper did not write a word about the music and performance and instead contented itself with talking about her chest ( "Feature review of my boob") to report.
She points out to the newspaper that by simply using Google they would quickly find out that the photos of their "tits" are not really exclusive and that they could very easily find many more pictures. In addition, she added that removing the nipple from the bra was not an escape, but rather an attempt to catch a little warmth from the rare British sun:
“If you'd googled my tits in advance you'd have found that your photos are hardly exclusive in addition you state that my breast had escaped from my bra like a thief on the run you do you know that it wasn't attempting to just take in the RARE british sun? "
After this joke, she comes to the core of her accusation to the tabloid press : She finds it sad that they use every opportunity to humiliate women according to their appearance for their own purposes. She realizes that she is far from censoring every "scrap", instead she points out that at this moment her body is trying to escape her kimono:
"It's so sad what you tabloids are doing your focus on debasing women's appearances ruins our species of humans but a rag is a rag and far be it from me to go censoring anyone OH NO it appears that my entire body is currently trying to escape this kimono…."
After undressing and calming the audience down a bit, she goes on to address the editors directly as a “misogynistic bunch of bastards” (she uses the ambiguous term “twats”, which can also be translated as pussies , rats or assholes ). She is tired of reading about the female baby pillows, vagina speed cameras and "muffin tops" and asks where the cocks are . If Iggy Pop , Mick Jagger or David Bowie appear topless, it is not worth a line and in the case of a woman, a bare breast immediately follows: "OH MY GOD NIPPLE".
"You misogynist pile of twats i'm tired of these baby bumps, vadge flashes, muffintops where are the newsworthy COCKS? if iggy or jagger or bowie go topless the news barely causes a ripple blah blah blah feminist blah blah blah gender shit blah blah blah OH MY GOD NIPPLE "
In the last verse, she says that she is aware that the Daily Mail will of course not report on this gig where she was approached directly. However, she is aware that the appearance and its content will spread thanks to the Internet and the guests present in the Roundhouse. And although there would be millions of people who would accept the limit set by the newspaper, there would still be a great many people who enjoy the sight of breasts in their natural environment. She hereby underlines her position that nudity is normal.
"And though there be millions of people who'll accept the cultural bar where you have it at there are plenty of others who're perfectly willing to see breasts in their natural habitat."
She closes the open letter with "UP YOURS".
resonance
Although the Daily Mail itself did not react to the appearance and the direct address, Palmer generated a great response with them, especially on the Internet . Just one day after the performance, her video , which was officially uploaded to YouTube , was viewed 234,000 times and was shared by numerous people via twitter , including celebrities such as Imogen Heap , Caitlin Moran , Wil Wheaton , Russell Brand , Bianca Jagger and Emma Freud . In addition, numerous blog and press articles were published.
The journalist Jeff Jarvis commented on the appearance in the British newspaper The Guardian and put it in the context of Palmer's general demeanor and her opinion. Jarvis had interviewed Palmer beforehand via twitter and also asked her if she had asked her fans to record and distribute the performance; her answer: "I did indeed". In his article he refers to her kickstarter backers party in Berlin in June 2012, at which Amanda Palmer also completely undressed and had her fans paint and write on her . This action was also addressed in her TED contribution on "The Art of Asking", which Jarvis also addresses in his contribution. Also in 2012, the band The Flaming Lips released a music video together with Amanda Palmer for the song The first time ever I saw your face , in which she takes over the singing voice of the song and shows herself naked in a bathtub filled with water for the entire video.
supporting documents
- ↑ Making a boob of herself! Amanda Palmer's breast escapes her bra as she performs on stage at Glastonbury In: Daily Mail , June 29, 2013; accessed on June 28, 2019.
- ↑ a b Song after Nippelblitzer: »Dear Daily Mail. Sincerely, Amanda Palmer « In: geschnackvoll.de, July 18, 2013; accessed on June 28, 2019.
- ^ A b Amanda Palmer: Dear Daily Mail video from the gig on July 12, 2013; accessed on June 28, 2019.
- ↑ a b c d e f Jeff Jarvis : Amanda Palmer delivers riposte to Daily Mail bra story - in 3/4 time In: The Guardian , July 13, 2013; accessed on June 28, 2019.
- ↑ a b Amanda Palmer performs naked: Dear Daily Mail In: blogbuzzter.de , July 18, 2013; accessed on June 28, 2019.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Amanda Palmer: My open letter to the Daily Mail blog post from July 13, 2013; accessed on June 28, 2019.
- ^ Reply from Amanda Palmer to Jeff Jarvis on twitter, July 18, 2013; accessed on June 29, 2019.
- ↑ Bucky Beal: Amanda Palmer Strips At Concert, Fans Write & Draw All Over Her. In: peeperz.com , June 22, 2012; accessed on June 29, 2019.
- ↑ Amanda Palmer: The Art of Asking at TED, youtube March 1, 2013; accessed on June 29, 2019.
- ↑ The Flaming Lips and Amanda Palmer: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face music video on vimeo.com , August 2012; accessed on June 29, 2019.