Surely you recognize 10-year-old British “rapper” Sophia Grace from her many appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The charming child first burst onto the scene in September 2011 when avideo of her singing Nicki Minaj’s Super Bass with her cousin Rosie went viral on YouTube. (As of this writing, that video has 42,058,357 hits.) The following month, the two girls appeared on DeGeneres’ talk show with Minaj (the clip of that appearance has been viewed 60,268,349 times on YouTube) and the rest is history. Sophia Grace and Rosie quickly became regular contributors to the talk show, appearing on the Grammys red carpet for ‘Ellen’ in 2012, doing pop covers and having tea with singers like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber.But as Sophia Grace has gotten a little older, some of her quirky charm has turned into a more mature personality, making her not less appealing per se, but certainly not the same entertainment commodity America is used to. One of the difficult questions that comes with working in Hollywood is how to make smooth career transitions as you age, but most women don’t have to deal with that until they’re over 40. Sophia Grace, at the tender age of 10, is now trying to find a way to transition from plucky chat show guest to legit music act, and she’s made her first move in that direction with a music video to a song called “Girls Just Gotta Have Fun.” That bad news is, the video isn’t very fun at all.At the heart of Sophia Grace’s immense likability is her spontaneous nature and enthusiasm. While this video, below, is full of the latter, it lacks much of the former. Like all pop songs for kids, this one isn’t very good, and the video is way overproduced. By trying to tame Sophia’s wild streak and turn it into something more groomed, pre-packaged and marketable, her handlers are spoiling her natural charm. Not to mention that while watching a child sing pop songs in her living room is hilarious and adorable, trying to turn a child into an actual pop star is just skeevy. Bottom line: it’s hard to enjoy entertainment that feels exploitative. Though I have no doubt Sophia enjoyed herself while making this, it seems her producers enjoy the idea of trying to make money off her even more.Friday, October 11, 2013
Sophia Grace Music Video ‘Girls Just Gotta Have Fun’ Isn’t Fun
Surely you recognize 10-year-old British “rapper” Sophia Grace from her many appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The charming child first burst onto the scene in September 2011 when avideo of her singing Nicki Minaj’s Super Bass with her cousin Rosie went viral on YouTube. (As of this writing, that video has 42,058,357 hits.) The following month, the two girls appeared on DeGeneres’ talk show with Minaj (the clip of that appearance has been viewed 60,268,349 times on YouTube) and the rest is history. Sophia Grace and Rosie quickly became regular contributors to the talk show, appearing on the Grammys red carpet for ‘Ellen’ in 2012, doing pop covers and having tea with singers like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber.But as Sophia Grace has gotten a little older, some of her quirky charm has turned into a more mature personality, making her not less appealing per se, but certainly not the same entertainment commodity America is used to. One of the difficult questions that comes with working in Hollywood is how to make smooth career transitions as you age, but most women don’t have to deal with that until they’re over 40. Sophia Grace, at the tender age of 10, is now trying to find a way to transition from plucky chat show guest to legit music act, and she’s made her first move in that direction with a music video to a song called “Girls Just Gotta Have Fun.” That bad news is, the video isn’t very fun at all.At the heart of Sophia Grace’s immense likability is her spontaneous nature and enthusiasm. While this video, below, is full of the latter, it lacks much of the former. Like all pop songs for kids, this one isn’t very good, and the video is way overproduced. By trying to tame Sophia’s wild streak and turn it into something more groomed, pre-packaged and marketable, her handlers are spoiling her natural charm. Not to mention that while watching a child sing pop songs in her living room is hilarious and adorable, trying to turn a child into an actual pop star is just skeevy. Bottom line: it’s hard to enjoy entertainment that feels exploitative. Though I have no doubt Sophia enjoyed herself while making this, it seems her producers enjoy the idea of trying to make money off her even more.
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Seriously, how lame. She is 10...it was fun...and cute.. the kid has exceptional talent that no doubt will just get better. Plucked the "40" out of thin air, I would say. I would say her vocals shined in this...I'm thinking maybe YOU are just wanting a piece of the 65 million hits and are betting on getting seen with this post. You are way off on this critique, if thats what you call it.
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