my own list
of some of the best, even if it's by no means complete.Headscarves in Music Videos
We've had movies with headscarf scenes and TV shows with headscarf scenes. But what about music videos?
Music videos are with us since the beginning of the '80s and the MTV era, going from simple video recordings of the artists playing to short movies with at least the hint of a storyline. In all these years we've had some good headscarf scenes, with female singers, dancers or extras wearing Kellys, Classics or Rear Ties around their pretty heads.
Headscarf scenes in music videos are not found as
often as in movies or in TV shows, and given the nature of the media they are
not very long but there are some quite memorable ones. I have made
my own list
of some of the best, even if it's by no means complete.
Let's begin...
It's 1985 and Madonna (who I'd like to remind is a certified Scarf Lady on this side) is climbing the charts with her second album, Like a Virgin.
One of Maddy's most famous
nicknames is Material
Girl, thanks to one of the hit songs on this album
and the well-known video where she mimics Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds are a
Girl's Best Friends" number, from the movie Gentlemen prefer Blondes.
Right at the beginning we are treated to a short sequence of Madonna arriving at the studios in a convertible: she is dressed in typical diva attire, complete with sunglasses and headscarf. It's a very brief scene but it kind of sets the mood for the whole video.
Check out Maddy's jewelry and dress, you can't go much more '80s than that!
Madonna would get headscarved again seven years later, 1992, in the This used to be my Playground video. The song features in the end credits for the movie A League of their own, in which the Material Girl herself stars and has a brief but nice headscarf scene.
The video is a 1940-themed nostalgia piece with our popstar wearing different themed outfits, including the beautiful scarf as seen in the pictures above and to the right.
Madonna is a headscarf wearer in real life, too, as befitting her diva attitude, appearing in public with her head snugly wrapped in many occasions, often complete with sunglasses.
Looks like, her sexy and liberated image notwithstanding, Maddy is a '50s woman at heart... At least where headscarf fashion is concerned!
Back to the '80s and precisely 1986, as
Whitney Houston debuts on the music scene with her first
album. The single How Will I Know ends up being one of her first hits,
and the video... Well, the video is "particular" to say the least. Whitney walks
and dances through a colourful maze as male and female dancers cavort around.
What's really great is that all of the female dancers (who as it seems are members of the British dance troupe Hot Gossip) wear Kelly headscarves! That's five pretty girls, all nicely and elegantly wrapped. Their dresses, jewelry and make-up is typical '80s fare but the headscarf is a really nice touch.
Look down here: pretty maids, headscarved, all in a row!
This video won the 1986 MTV Best Female Music Video Award and in my opinion the headscarves were reason enough!
Later on, Whitney had some regrets about the video, because of the hairstyle and clothing choices.
Well,
Whitney, you should have worn the same outfit as the dancers'!
Six years later, in 1992, Whitney Houston would have her first headscarf scene at the end of the movie The Bodyguard. You can see the captures here and look at her beautiful Kelly wrap.
This scene is the one most associated with the movie, and features in the I will always love you video, from the motion micture soundtrack.
In 1987 the New Wave band ABC published
their 4th album, Alphabet City
,
which included the single The Night you Murdered Love. The video for the
song is set in Paris as a skateboard-riding, slingshot-wielding assassin model
stalks 'fashion victims' around.
You can't get more fashion victim than the dancing girls in the videos, however! The two beauties wear Kelly-style headscarves through the whole video, both indoors and in a brief scene out in the open (where they also wear sunglasses).
Like
with all music videos, the editing means that we rarely see
some long scene of the headscarf-wearing ladies, but this is a must-see anyway
because they're simply great to look at.
It's sometimes said that the '80s have not been the most headscarf-friendly decade, but as we have seen it has not always been the case!
In 1989 Former Go-Go girl Belinda Carlisle
released her third solo album, Runaway Horses. The
first
song, Leave a Light on, was the subject of a video in which beautiful
Belinda is shown driving around wearing a white headscarf Kelly style. Again,
the scenes are brief (some in a classy black and white as she walks about Las
Vegas) but worth checking out.
Personally, I always found Belinda Carlisle really gorgeous, and seeing her headscarved was simply great.
Fast forward to 1996 and the Cranberries album To the Faithful Departed. In the video for When you're Gone, singer Dolores O'Riordan wears a black headscarf in a Classic tie.
The parts of the video with her headscarved are shot in black & white. The ends flutter freely in the wind, for a melanchonic and romantic image.
1999 saw the release of the A*Teens (formerly ABBA Teens) debut album, and of their first videos. In the Mamma Mia video we see Marie Serneholt wearing a colourful headscarf, peasant style, to offset her black & white waitress outfit.
Marie's headscarf scenes are, alas, brief but she gets some nice shots. A pity Sara Lumholdt, the other girl in the group, did not wear one as well...
Three years later, in 2002, Jennifer Lopez's remix of I'm Gonna be Alright came out accompanied by the obligatory video. In one scene, J.Lo wears a rear-tie headscarf while doing her laundry.
On
the same year Alanis Morissette released her album Under Rug Swept,
which featured the song Hands Clean. In the video for this song there's a
very brief scene of Alanis wearing a rear tie while doing a studio recording.
J.Lo wears headscarves quite often, Alanis much less. A pity, really, because she would look really good in a nice wrap.
While rear ties are popular enough today that a songstress or a female extra (like the one on the right from Lee Ryan's video Army of Lovers) can wear one in a music video without looking too conspicuous, a classic or a Kelly would definitely mean something.
And below we have the beautiful Anastacia, wearing a Classic wrap in the 2006 video for I Belong to You.
In the video, she and Italian singer Eros Ramazzotti play a romantic couple through various periods of history, with the headscarf-wearing Anastacia appearing in a 1960-inspired sequence towards the end. The scene is very brief but from the photoshoot (from which comes the image at the right) it looks like Anastacia really enjoyed wearing her scarf. She looks really great with it, by the way!
And finally, Alicia Keys has had her share
of headscarf-wearing moments in her videos, since she wears headscarves in real
life too. Here to the left we see her from the If I ain't got you video,
with her trademark rear tied scarf.
To the right and below, Alicia from both live apperances and photoshoots.
Isn't she just lovely?
Well, we have come to the end of two decades of lovely headscarved ladies in music videos. There are probably more around that I have not featured here, but it's not intended to be a complete list, just a quick overview of some of the most memorable ones. Keep your voices tuned and your heads wrapped, girls!