There isn’t anything quite like the supermodels of the ’90s, a decade considered the golden era of supermodels. The famous beauties had a reputation not only for modeling but also for dating rockstars. Not only famous for their private liaisons, the combination worked very well in music videos. In the ’80s and ’90s, having a supermodel in a video was a status symbol. Musicians were scrambling for top names resulting in some of the best supermodel-rockstar-music-videos such as Billy Joel’s ‘Uptown Girl’ featuring Christie Brinkley (back then his girlfriend, of course) and Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’ with a very sexy Helena Christensen.
My two personal favourite videos somehow managed to bring together the highest caliber cadre of 1980’s models: having pioneered the use of supermodels in music videos in the ’80s and ’90s – including Christy Turlington in ‘Notorious’ – Duran Duran returned to the gimmick in a big way for its ‘Girl Panic’ video in 2011. Featuring supermodels portraying the band members (Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Eva Herzigova and Helena Christensen), the women are interviewed about the rock star life. But besides getting the supermodels together, the clip making was not easy. As John Taylor admitted, ‘Naomi was a little late arriving and as soon as she arrived she had to be taken away to her own room and we thought, hmmm, is this going to be one of those Naomi days? But I have to say she walked out there and she nailed it—and you just go ‘superstar’—that is what she is.’
But for me THE supermodel video of supermodel videos is George Michael’s ‘Freedom’ featuring Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Tatjana Patitz, and Naomi Campbell at the height of their superpowers in 1990. Directed by David Fincher, the video depicted the women lip-syncing to Michael’s anthem while three symbols of his career – a jukebox, a guitar, and the leather jacket from his ‘Faith’ video – are destroyed. There are also top male models in the video – not that anyone noticed.
videos via youtube George Michael ‘Freedom’ and youtube Duran Duran ‘Girl Panic’
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