Appropriated by brands, media and artists alike, so ubiquitous has the phrase become over the past five years, that it's almost impossible to remember a time before the existence of the Hot Girl Summer. "Being a Hot Girl is about being unapologetically YOU, having fun, being confident, living YOUR truth, being the life of the party etc," Megan Thee Stallion tweeted before dropping her truth on her first US number one single, a collaboration with Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla Sign, on August 9, 2019, thus establishing a new short-hand for confidence, swagger and self-love.
It's more than a little ironic then, that (white) cultural commentators have been falling over themselves to declare, for various reasons, Taylor Swift or Charli XCX or Sabrina Carpenter or Chappell Roan as the 'Hot Girl' of summer 2024, while largely ignoring the Texan rapper's own on-going Hot Girl Summer Tour, which, since May, has been packing out venues including New York's storied Madison Square Garden and London's 20,000-capacity O2 Arena.
Last week, Katy Perry took her own shot at channeling 'HGS' vibes with her comeback single/video, Woman's World, a decision she may yet live to regret, given the brutally negative critical response meted out to it: just yesterday, the singer felt the need to post a follow-up video on Instagram explaining the "SATIRE" involved, and suggested that the video was deliberately provocative in order to prep listeners for the "reset" coming with her forthcoming 143 album, due for release on September 20, which, she says, will more fully explore her idea of "the feminine divine."
How then to interpret the return today (July 15) of "beloved global icon" Peppa Pig, with a new album, Peppa's Party: The Album, featuring a prominent cover of Perry's own hugely-successful and critically-adored 2013 single Roar, the video for which passed 4 billion views on Youtube in May, making it, as Billboard reported, the most viewed music video by any female artist on the platform, ever. Given the gleeful media pile-on Perry's single sparked, it would be all-too-easy to interpret Pig's cover as another arch, mocking addition to the discourse, but to do so would be misguided and inaccurate, given that the pair are friends, as evidenced by Perry's appearance as dress maker Ms. Leopard in Pig's 2024 three-part TV special Peppa Pig Wedding Party Special, Perry later hailing Pig as a "totally fearless" role model.
Not everyone, it seems, is prepared to throw a female artist under a bus for clicks, 'likes' and transient yuks, and respect is due to Pig for rising above the noise.
Pig's PR team describe the long-awaited follow-up to her knowingly self-aware 2019 collection My First Album as "the ultimate party soundtrack" and state that it's "commemorating five years of musical success with a fresh pop vibe". While it's tempting to wonder what fresh angles collaborations with artists such as Poppy, PinkPantheress or say, Kim Petras, might have brought to the party, it's entirely understandable that Pig, in partnership with songwriters Ellis Beau and Jack Alexander, arguably best-known for their work with L.O.L Surprise, would seek to hone and perfect the uplifting vibes of her early material.
Certainly, anyone who enjoyed the joyously uninhibited Bing Bong Zoo or the wide-eyed euphoria of Rainbow, Rainbow on My First Album will feel seen here in the likes of irresistible club banger opener Celebration! ("Everybody come together... It's a celebration!") and the surprisingly profound block party funk jam Piggle Wiggle ("Sometimes I'll be feeling down, and a dance can help me turn it around"), reprised at the end of the record in 'Extra Wiggle Remix!' form, for bonus feel-good positivity.
Elsewhere, Pig offers a wink to patriarchal traditionalism with the sassy, spirited I Do, at once a celebration of the love between Peppatown power couple Mr. Bull and Mrs. Cow, and a re-appropriation of Christian marital vows as a bold, defiant affirmation of living loud ("I can't wait to wear my favourite sparkly dress!"). Elsewhere Rollercoaster encourages bravery in the face of life's inevitable challenges, cleverly drawing allusions to childhood visits to theme parks ("We go up, up, up, we go down, down, down, we go up, up, spinning around"), while Jump ("When you try something for the first time, and you're not sure it will work out right / You got what it takes, you will succeed!') is all about empowerment and zero-fucks-given confidence-building.
If there's a downside to the record, it's a slender run-time (just 23 minutes and 18 seconds, including that Piggle Wiggle remix) but this compactness does ensure that there's no dilution of Pig's messaging, no pandering, no negativity. Fear not Megan, there are no attempts here to lay claim to ownership of summer 2024 kweendom by Peppa Thee Pig, but that's only because pop music's most animated voice is an all-four-seasons, 24/7 party animal, and this sizzling soundtrack to unapologetic authentic living is her definitive work.
