The first song I fell in love with
Wild Wood by Paul Weller, when I was in the National Youth Theatre of Wales, staying away from home for the first time, spotting dolphins in the sea in Aberystwyth.
The first single I bought
My grampa bought me Joanna by Kool & the Gang and Mickey by Toni Basil from Woolworths in Swansea. When I got older, I bought Push It! by Salt-N-Pepa, which I played on the big silver record player in the living room.
The song I do at karaoke
The number of times I’ve been at a wrap party for Gavin & Stacy, drunk in the toilets with Christine Gernon, our director, and you can hear them shouting: “Gernon and Page for Dancing Queen.” During Covid, we bought a karaoke machine and my songs of choice were It Wasn’t Me by Shaggy and My Humps by Black Eyed Peas.
The song makes me want to cry
When we came out of hospital after I’d given birth to Eva, my first baby, we sat in the car and said: the first song that comes on the radio is going to be Eva’s song, and it was Diamonds by Rhianna. Now it reminds me of my beautiful little baby and makes me cry every time.
The song I inexplicably know every lyric to
You’re Welcome, from Disney musical Moana, because when Eva was small, all the kids loved it, and I performed it with some other mum friends from school.
The song I can no longer listen to
Evergreen by Barbra Streisand was the first dance at our wedding. Now I’m getting old, the kids are growing up, it makes me feel sentimental and weepy. If I hear it on the radio, I have to switch it off.
The song I secretly like, but tell everyone I hate
After the school drop off is the only time I can relax, play loud music, swear in the car and have a bit of a release before I get back home and have to be nice gentle mummy again. So some really dirty rap by Snoop Dogg.
The best songs to have sex to
I was listening to some Fleetwood Mac recently which was quite sexy, but when the singing started, I thought: “Oh my God, I’d turn that off if I was in the middle of having sex.” I prefer some Cafe Del Mar Ibiza-y tunes, like you’re nice and sandy on the beach, feeling romantic and sexy.
The song that changed my life
After our first date with my now husband, James, I went back to his flat and he put on Imagine by John Lennon. He was talking about the lyrics and I remember thinking: “He’s going to ask me what I think about them in a minute. I don’t care. I just want to kiss him.”
The song that gets me up in the morning
iT by Christine and the Queens, who I love, makes me feel confident, sexy, alive and strong, even though my four children will be running up and down the landing and I will feel like death most mornings.
The song I want play at my funeral
I don’t want anything miserable. I want something happy, exciting and fun when I’m being cremated or shot into the sky. I’m So Excited by the Pointer Sisters, to go out on a high.
Joanna Page’s Wild Life airs 6 January on BBC Two and iPlayer.
