Here’s the Thing!
Let's get straight to the point!
"What Is Love" (by Haddaway) Shuffle-dance video!
I know… settle down, and I’ll explain!
So, for the last few days or so, well, I had me them blues…
The main culprit? Bureaucracy. I’m an expat Brit post-Brexit resident in Spain (so an immigrant), married to another non-EU immigrant, so a mixed-race couple, with our amazing two-and-a-half-year-old son, born in Spain (to two visibly non-Spanish Spanish residents)… believe me, when you need in-date, officially notarised paperwork from four countries, on three continents, well, it does not get more bureaucratically complex than this… until it does…
Last week, I was flying back from the UK to Spain, only to be told that my UK passport (which expires in the middle of next year) won’t be valid in Spain after July this year because Spain will not be honouring a pre-Brexit agreement regarding some UK ten-year passports, which are technically valid for more than ten years (because the UK added any unexpired time from a previous passport to a new one…)… apparently this will affect almost half the UK passport-holding population…
So, on top of all the other bureaucratic hoops I have to jump through, well, they added another, oh, and (bless them) the UK Government also put up passport renewal fees just in time to coincide with a glut of people desperately trying to renew their not-so-ten-year passports…
WTF (I hear you say) has this got to do with Haddaway’s “What Is Love” song and this shuffle-dance video version?!?
Well, I realised that when I feel a bit down in the dumps, one of the first things I do is go to my laptop and search for this video, which I then play very loud on repeat about four or five times, and… I even try to copy some of the dance moves — you don’t need to imagine that, trust me, I’m sixty-one, and it’s not for the faint-hearted…
So, yep, my go-to guilty pleasure, makes me feel-good music video is this “What Is Love” shuffle dance one… sad but true…
And, so, I was just wondering…
Do you have one, a go-to guilty pleasure, makes you feel good music video?
What is it?
Or what’s your go-to blues remedy?
Let me know in the comments.
Please note: I have another infotainment channel on Substack, called Unleashed & Unlimited, where I post podcasts, articles and content unrelated to music.🖋🎥🎙
That IS a pretty cool vid, and I loved the dancing! I've got 8 years on you, Nic, and there's no way I'd attempt some of those moves. I'd end up snapping something (other than my fingers)! Plus, here in the states, all we know about that song is that SNL skit where it's played in a club/disco, and two characters start bobbing their heads to the rhythm, so that's the extent of dancing to Haddaway that I've been aware of!
One vid (with bizarre, Magritte-like graphics....."pleased to Magritte you!"), with "cute" dancing (and a jaunty, happy-sounding song) is by one of my faves, Todd Rundgren, in a song often overlooked in his oeuvre, "Time Heals" from 1981. In fact, this video for the song was about the 8th one aired on MTV on their inaugural launch, August 1, '81! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVn-DMijdxY Enjoy!
Uptown Funk - Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson
Feelin' Alright or The Letter - Joe Cocker
Chicago - Make Me Smile
My go-to's for being a dancing fool and lifting my spirits