VSyndi Lauper is set to get the feature documentary treatment, with news that a film about the singer’s life is in production. He will be called Let the canary sing and is directed by Alison Ellwood.
Ellwood won the award The Go-Gos in 2020, which told the story of the LA rock band’s rise to the top and the implosion that followed. From the Janet Jackson documentary earlier this year, at Sherylreleased in the United States this weekend, about the long career of Sheryl Crow, more and more films focus on the career of women in music and finally take it seriously.
Many stories written during the release of Sheryl followed a similar vein, in that, despite her huge success, she never received the credit she was due. In an interview with Crow, in the New York Times, young artists – from Soccer Mommy to Best Coast – have spoken about how much she means to them. On YouTube you can watch Waxahatchee and Snail Mail respectfully and beautifully covering Strong enougha 1993 Crow hit.
If the merit has always been there, the new film puts it back where it belongs. Admittedly, the history of music has always been askew when it comes to the recognition of its contributors. In 2020, NPR reported that women made up just 8% of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees (oddly, Crow was never nominated), although this year Pat Benatar, Carly Simon and Dolly Parton joined the club, despite Parton’s initial. resistance.
These documentaries are presented as correctives to stories often badly told at the time. Bad reputation, the 2018 film about Joan Jett, portrays a music press that hated the Runaways, who thought them cute until they decided they were “bitches”. It may have been the 1970s, but when I started reading music magazines in the 90s, special issues on “women in rock” were standard and the lists considered female musicians as something something separate and foreign. In 2003, NME put Avril Lavigne on a cover with the phrase “All hell the heroines of the no-cock revolution!” Different times.
There’s a move toward documentaries that explore the pop culture of the past in the context of today’s more reflective attitudes. Many shine a light on tabloid culture and its treatment of celebrities, from Jade Goody to Paul Gascoigne. Thus, the music also undergoes its revision. As keepers change, the record is finally corrected.
Eddie Scott: Classic dishes with a twist earned him MasterChef
This year Chef ended with a finale summarizing the eccentricities of a brilliant competition, up there with the best.
Radha Kaushal-Bolland, 23, had only been cooking for a few years and brought tears to John Torode, served an all-vegetarian meal. Pookie Tredell served cocktails from a flower and cooked rice in all the colors of the rainbow, as well as a meal in the colors of the Irish flag.
It looked like a playful year, in which the competition was hungry for difference, whether celebrating raw and ready home cooks or wannabe Heston Blumenthals. But in the end, I’m not sure the competition was so tight. Eddie Scott, the former Navy pilot who at one time wore a pink shirt and bow tie as a tribute to his hero, Keith Floyd, won with his combinations of classic French cuisine and Indian spices. His final menu reminded me Chef in its infancy, emphasizing technical skills as well as flavor. But it was a stuffier show back then and Scott and the rest of the finalists proved that these days Chef is far from overwhelming.
Women’s sport: Daily televised matches are a massive win
One evening last week I was flipping through the channels and settled in on the last 15 minutes or so of the Arsenal game against Spurs on BBC Two. At the weekend, I ended up watching Arsenal beat Aston Villa. These weren’t matches I had planned to see, but had come across and stuck with. Isn’t it amazing, I said, as Caitlin Foord scored twice in 11 minutes. (Spurs were obviously emotional that night.) Women’s football is on TV and that’s completely normal.
It’s a far cry from a few years ago when, to watch a number of women’s football matches without being there, you had to track them down online and then hope they had more than one camera trained on the pitch. . But times have changed, quickly and permanently. More people are watching women’s sport than ever before, and they’re watching it for longer, according to new research from the Women’s Sport Trust. “These encouraging numbers confirm our long-held view that if women’s sport is made visible, then the public will watch,” said Tammy Parlor, co-founder and CEO of the trust.
People watch women play football, cricket and rugby. The increase in audience figures is enormous. In the first quarter of last year, 6.7 million people watched women’s sports; at the same time this year, it was 17.9 million. The fact that it’s now possible to accidentally catch a game on an afternoon or evening seems momentous to me, and I’ve already started to take it for granted that women’s sports are on mainstream television. If these numbers are anything to go by and the right people are listening, there should be plenty more where this came from.
Rebecca Nicholson is an Observer columnist
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