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.
