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Bowen Yang’s Fire Island Karaoke Song Had to Be ‘Campy’ and ‘Pure’
Bowen Yang says he wanted a song that was campy, ironic, earnest and pure for his movie ‘Fire Island” with Joel Kim Booster, choosing Britney Spears “Sometimes” and considering Tracy Chapman, as well as The Carpenters.

Bowen Yang’s Fire Island Karaoke Song Had to Be ‘Campy’ and ‘Pure’

On the “queer music spectrum,” there are apparently two poles — Britney Spears and Tracy Chapman — or at least that was what Bowen Yang told Vanity Fair in a June 3 interview. When asked about the musical moment at the end of his new film Fire Island, in which his character gains confidence over the course of a karaoke performance, Yang revealed that his co-star (and writer and producer and Vulture profile subject) Joel Kim Booster let him choose what song he wanted to sing. Yang immediately wanted Britney Spears’s … Baby One More Time–era single “Sometimes” because “it has to be a song that is somewhat campy and ironic, but also so earnest and pure.” “It is a song that I’ve always loved of hers that is summer — so light and airy and about just being vulnerable and the fear that sort of gets paired along with that,” he said. His second choices? “Baby Can I Hold You,” by Tracy Chapman or the Carpenters.

Yang getting his choice led to an even greater musical moment: a MUNA cover of the same song for the Hulu film’s soundtrack. Famed purveyors of queer joy MUNA are a fierce (said in a Project Runway season-four Christian Siriano voice) choice for the Spears cover. MUNA transforms the song from a classic ’90s-style ballad into a dreamy, beat-driven, harmony-laden anthem. However, it must be said that the choice to skip the iconic ascending bridge is, while not outwardly homophobic, certainly a choice that will affect generations to come. MUNA are releasing their self-titled album on June 24, so we’ll hold out hope that the “Sometimes” bridge shows up as an interlude.

Sources

vanity fair

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