Coronavirus: Whigfield and D:Ream on their ’90s classics uplifting people in lockdown

Pandemic appropriate songs have unsurprisingly made a resurgence in recent weeks, with REM’s The End Of The World As We Know It, Queen’s I Want To Break Free and Akon’s Locked Up all seeing a boost in sales as the UK turns to humour in strange times.

The uplifting classics such as You’ll Never Walk Alone and We’ll Meet Again are also enjoying a comeback too, thanks to Captain Tom and the Queen’s shout-out to Dame Vera Lynn in her speech on coronavirus lockdown.

But it seems songs from the 1990s, that decade of hope and optimism, are also providing the uplift that people need as enforced isolation nears the end of week six.

Footage from Dublin went viral earlier this month as residents ventured outside to perform Whigfield’s famous Saturday Night dance – socially distanced, of course.

And in Nottingham, D:Ream’s 1994 number one hit Things Can Only Get Better has become the anthem of the city’s Clap for our Carers applause each week, played out across the city every Thursday night.

The Lighthouse Family’s High, Aqua’s Barbie Girl and Wannabe, by the Spice Girls, all feature in the Official Charts’ Top 100 lockdown listening list too, while Spotify says Lou Bega’s Mambo No 5 (like Saturday Night, another one with a dance routine) is being added to lots of playlists.

Baby One More Time, by Britney Spears, and I Want It That Way, by the Backstreet Boys, have also seen Spotify streams increase.

Speaking to Sky News from her home outside Milan, Italy, Sannie Carlson, the woman better known as Whigfield, says she has seen many renditions of Saturday Night in the 27 years since its release, but none quite like the dancing in Dublin.

“I’ve seen a lot of these videos throughout the years, but I just think this is so funny because everybody was safely distanced, you know, and they had their little marks where they were supposed to stand, which I thought was hilarious,” she says. “It made me really happy.”

Carlson says she thinks the song has had a lasting legacy because of its simplicity.

“I think it’s so cheesy,” she says. “It’s one of those songs that you either really hate it or you really love it, and it’s like nursery rhymes, it’s easy to sing along to.

“It’s the classic, you cannot not play it at a wedding, because it’s just one of those few moments where people can get together and be silly. And I’m all about silliness and not taking myself so seriously.

“I think, especially right now, people need that… I don’t know, we just have to get through this and I think music is an amazing therapy for mental health.”

The song also captured perfectly that teenage anticipation of a big night out, as demonstrated by Whigfield dancing in a towel and plaiting her hair in the video.

“Well, that was the video,” she laughs. “I mean, it was about a girl getting ready to go out on a Saturday Night. When people ask, what’s the song about? It’s not deep, you know?”

The ’90s, Carlson says, was her “perfect era” for music.

“I think the music was very melodic then,” she says. “It was more simple and it was easier to create an artist. I mean, nowadays… Well, kids can make music from home and there’s so much music out there. It’s not like you get into the charts and you stay there for, like, weeks and weeks; now it’s like, in and out.”

In Italy, which was hit by coronavirus earlier than the UK, Carlson has been in lockdown for almost eight weeks, and with tighter restrictions.

But she’s philosophical about isolation, and says she takes positives from being connected virtually.

“The funny thing is I released a new single a little while back and everyone said, you’re crazy because this is like the worst time, you can’t do promotion. But I think there are more people listening to radio now than before. I mean, there’s so much more togetherness now, people are connecting more in a certain way. It’s like the world has become a smaller place.”

Like Carlson, D:Ream frontman Pete Cunnah has seen his biggest hit used in many different ways over the years, most notably as Tony Blair’s 1997 Labour election anthem.

He says seeing footage of the song being used in Nottingham made him emotional.

“A friend of mine sent me the tweet of the Nottingham thing with the lyrics being blasted after the NHS clap, and I broke into tears,” he says. “I’ve experienced that song in so many different ways and I’d never in a month of Sundays have anticipated it being used this way.

“There’s been so much love out there towards the song and how it’s helping people. You think, God, it’s really not my song anymore. It’s become… well, it belongs to all of us, I suppose.

“That’s an amazing thing as a writer… it’s very heartening.”

Back in the early 1990s, Cunnah had the title for the song, and had a clear idea of the kind of track he wanted to make.

“When I had the title, Things Can Only Get Better, I was just looking for something that would literally put the hairs on the back of the neck and also make people punch the air for joy,” he says.

“I was able to put those kind of ingredients together somehow at the right time.

“It’s just been this kind of injection of joy that people go crazy for. When we play it live, I know it’s the ace in my sleeve and I really enjoy it. The energy is still in the record.”

Cunnah is in lockdown in Donegal, in Ireland, currently working on a new D:Ream album with co-founder Alan Mackenzie.

After two albums in their 1990s heyday, the duo released In Memory Of… in 2011 after several years away. The new album, Hope For You, will be their fourth.

Cunnah admits he went through a period where being known for one hit became a burden, but “you learn to get over yourself”.

He laughs: “I was like, ‘there are other songs available, people’. But I can’t leave a party now if people know it’s me, they make me get up and sing the song. And actually, you get over yourself and you just get up and you have fun with people and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s good fun.”

Political events in the late 1980s and early 1990s, such as Margaret Thatcher’s resignation and the fall of the Berlin Wall, led to a feeling of change, which was reflected in the music being made.

“Everybody’s Free (Rozalla), if you think of that, or How Can I Love You More? By M People,” says Cunnah.

“There was a thing about that early sort of post-disco, early house scene that just had that joyous feel to it… there was a moment in time there where it was very, very joyous.

“I know it’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but you know, you need to be entertained as well as you need to be depressed. That’s the light and shade, the contrast of music. That’s what it does for people.

“Paul Simon said every generation throws a new hero up the pop charts and he’s not kidding, because my kids, they love Stormzy; I don’t get Stormzy. I love all the early ’70s stuff. I love the ’80s. Bowie, the Eurythmics, U2, The Police. That was my era.

“Then I had a second crack at it when we were hanging out with, like, Leftfield and Underworld and M People. I had a second crack at my childhood.

“But as music moves on and as you get older, you do get set in your ways and you look back and see the world through rose-tinted glasses and, as it should be, you move away from the stuff your kids like.

“Because you don’t want to be hanging out with your kids, liking the music they like… because they’ll be upset with you, let’s put it that way, that you’re sort of standing on their turf. So, it’s just as it should be.”

Nkosi Inniss, also known as DJ Coast 2 Coast, has been organising weekly “safe raves” for his neighbours in Ancoats, Manchester, an area where old warehouses and factories have been converted into flats and there are lots of rooftops and balconies.

Playing 15 minute sets, he says tracks from the ’90s are undoubtedly popular, from Oasis to N-Trance.

“It was a time when so much of the music coming out was euphoric, about love and happiness and togetherness and that type of stuff,” he says.

“For example, Show Me Love (Robin S), I play a remix of that one, and Whitney Houston, I’m Every Woman, which is one of my favourite songs – that goes off.

“N-Trance, Set You Free – I played it and everyone went crazy on the roofs.

:: Listen to the Backstage podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker

“With technology now, everything’s accessible. Not that music today all sounds similar – there’s a lot of different genres, lots of incredible music now. But I think then, a lot of the things that people were making music on… even the way they were making music.

“When I look back at the music from a production side, it’s actually insane, which makes me appreciate that era even more.”

Wonderwall, released by Oasis in 1995, is always a crowd-pleaser, he says.

“The lyric, ‘Because maybe, you’re gonna be the one who saves me’ – at the minute, you might be saved by somebody, by the NHS. I feel like it really means something. And as a proud Mancunian, I love Oasis.”

He sums it up nicely.

“Because everyone’s in isolation, people want music that gives them familiarity. That’s what it’s about.”

Watch Whigfield on Kay Burley at Breakfast live on Sky News on Monday morning

(c) Sky News 2020: Coronavirus: Whigfield and D:Ream on their ’90s classics uplifting people in lockdown