You learn about yourself through how your friends see you.” The video for “B.O.T.A” – an Alice in Wonderland-style descent into Hackney’s queer scene which features a starry cast of drag and performance artists – is itself a testament to friendship: filmed on a minuscule budget, it was directed by one of Rose’s best friends, Jeanie Crystal, the founder of Faboo TV, and she knows everyone who took part, even if only through conversations in club smoking areas. “Friendship is just as important as the notion of romantic love. “Female friendship runs through everything I do,” she says. The song is intended to be nostalgic, but it’s a nostalgia anyone can relate to, whether they’re an older person reflecting on another era, or an 18-year-old reminiscing about the previous summer.Īs well as being a DJ, Rose is a fiction writer who has just finished her first novel – What Happens in Dreamland – which portrays a friendship between two women who are both, in their own ways, in bad situations. When she first heard the instrumental (she wrote the lyrics and top-line melody, Interplanetary Criminal wrote the music), she imagined it being played at an arcade in the 90s: fairground rides, cheap candy floss, throwing up, being 14 years old and kissing a boy. “How I write is very image-led,” Rose says. The song is extremely catchy, which no doubt has contributed to its success, but there’s also something deeply evocative about it. “It’s a little bit trashy, a little bit Euro,” says Rose. “B.O.T.A” has elements of UK garage, which remains one of Rose’s biggest inspirations, and maybe a little dash of PC Music, but really it’s a tribute to 90s dance. The tagline reads: “the baddest one chick hit squad which ever hit town.” “She’s the ultimate figure of female empowerment for me,” says Rose, “and even if it’s not an obvious reference, I think some of that strength permeated the song.” It makes her happy that the song has resonated so much among young women, Black and queer communities in her words, “people living themselves authentically, doing what they want that makes them happy and going against norms.” Anyone who enjoys the song, and feels empowered while listening to it, instantly becomes “the baddest of them all.” The song’s title and central refrain is inspired by Coffy, a 1973 Blaxploitation film which stars Pam Grier as a woman vigilante. For it now to be at number two is insane.” “But never in a million years did I think it would get into the charts. “I thought the underground scene would love it, and I knew that it was quite a special song,” she tells me, as we begin our white wine-fuelled stroll through Dalston, the area she grew up. Soon, it was everywhere, achieving a level of ubiquity which Rose hadn’t anticipated. “B.O.T.A” first gained traction in London’s club scene, but it wasn’t until Glastonbury that it really took off. But you probably have done, at some point: on the radio, at a festival, blaring out of a passing car on a sultry evening, the soundtrack to any number of TikToks where people lip-sync the lyrics while clearly feeling themselves (and good for them!) Now hovering at number two in the charts, “B.O.T.A” marks the long-awaited end of the “song of the summer” recession we’ve been suffering for years. If you still haven’t heard it, I have some upsetting news about your grasp on the cultural zeitgeist. It’s a snapshot of Hackney’s underground culture that is thriving.Future historians will look back on this as the summer of rail strikes, Elf Bars, climate breakdown, spiralling living costs, and “B.O.T.A (Baddest of Them All)”, a dance track by Eliza Rose and Interplanetary Criminal. We exist as a whole so all the performers have a connection through collaboration and friendship and that’s what makes the success of BOTA all the more amazing. "It’s all about community and supporting each other’s art. She was always so supportive of my work with Faboo and was adamant I direct her first single's video. "I’ve known Eliza for a long time as we used to DJ together in pubs across Hackney. "This was one of the most chaotic and magical shoots of my life! Having this much energy in one space is a director's dream!" says Jeanie Crystal. The bold colours and unique styling exude a sense of freedom and nostalgia, whilst the spotlight on different characters in the video helps boost the profiles of local creatives.Ĭrystal is co-founder of queer arts collective Faboo, and this video announces their ambitions to be a leading creative force for queer artists and queer ally artists. Shot on a budget of mostly love and lip-gloss, the video shows Eliza Rose heading out to the club, hanging with friends and taking over the dancefloor. Jeanie Crystal directs a vibrant promo for rising hit B.O.T.A (Baddest Of Them All).
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