We’re about a month away from the highly anticipated release of Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), which hits theaters February 7 like a swinging mallet. And with the release of this all-female team up film comes an equally kickass soundtrack that is almost entirely made up of female artists. The first single off of the film’s soundtrack is “Diamonds”, a duet featuring Megan Thee Stallion and Normani, who give us their own interpretation of the Birds of Prey.
In the video, Normani and Megan Thee Stallion are styled as their own girl gang, sporting Harley-style mallets and baseball bats. They fight off bad guys in a twisted carnival in between rapping and singing the song. We also get to see more scenes from the film, which involve a roller skating Harley chasing down and holding onto the bumper of a swerving car.
“Diamonds” borrows the hook from the iconic “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” performed by Marilyn Monroe as ditzy showgirl Lorelei Lee in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. We know that Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) is doing her own homage to that number in the film from clips we’ve seen in the trailer:
DO I SPY EWAN MCGREGOR IN A MUSICAL NUMBER??? pic.twitter.com/DAMWffzj5f
— Clarisse Loughrey (@clarisselou) January 10, 2020
“Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” was previously covered in Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 jukebox musical Moulin Rouge! which, in a coincidental twist, also starred Ewan McGregor. In that film, “Diamonds” is mashed up with “Material Girl” and sung by Nicole Kidman’s musical courtesan Satine.
Lorelei and Satine share the same motivation in their versions of the song, namely their transactional relationship with the men in their life. Both women are more than happy to trade their time for the favors that wealthy men can bestow on them, and the gist of these songs is that while men may come and go, diamonds are, in fact, forever.
Megan and Normani however, put a feminist, more modern spin on the lyrics by getting the jewels themselves. Megan raps that “diamonds are my new boyfriend”, showing that she doesn’t need a man to make money, as the hook repeats, “I don’t need you I got flooded out baguettes, I don’t need you but my diamonds drippin’ wet”. In the words of Destiny’s Child, “all the women who are independent, throw your hands up at me!”
The song works perfectly for the film, which follows a jilted Harley recovering from her break-up with the Joker and forming her own badass girl gang, or as she says in the trailer, “I wasn’t the only dame in Gotham looking for emancipation.”
If this music video is any indication, this movie is going to be a blast. What do you think of the first single?
(via EW, image: screencap/Atlantic Records)
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