Have we as a society honestly not progressed beyond the need for people to be covering Robyn's "Dancing on My Own"? I could've sworn we'd collectively put a moratorium on it, so imagine my surprise when I made the mistake of unmuting the ad for Gap's new fall campaign that's been all over my timeline today.
Audrey Hobert's brother and fellow quirk-pop artist Malcolm Todd not only appears in the ad (alongside Obsession's Inde Navarette, who is now absolutely everywhere) modelling the clothes, but recorded his rendition of Robyn's pop classic for it — and sue me, I want to know who wanted this.
"Some people think it's nerve-wracking, or that you have to follow in these footsteps — it's such an iconic song — but the energy the Gap team put into the process was just like, 'Go have fun. Go do your thing. There's no rules. We know you love this song, so just go have a blast and we want to hear your voice on it,'" Todd told Nylon, effectively answering my question and begging for a company-wide wellness check.
(It also just forced me to Google another urgent question — are Audrey Hobert and Malcolm Todd twins? — which had a shocking answer: no, but Todd does have a twin named Ella, who is hopefully just doing normal-person stuff out in the world.)
Hobert's whole shtick is being a bit cringe on purpose, which she occasionally does to great effect. I don't know how many "post" prefixes it would take in front of the word "ironic" for her brother's take to make sense here, though, and the only effect is the feeling of the life draining from one's body in real time. I really hope the khaki sales are worth it, Gap.
