Ciara - 'Like A Boy'
The art of the arresting opening line in a song is one of the hardest to master in all of the many songwriting disciplines. Think of JT shouting out "I'm bringing sexy back!" and all heads suddenly turning his way, or the Sugababes beginning 'Ugly' with the words "when I was seven they said I was strange". It sends sparks flying in your brain, and draws you further in.
With that in mind, It's hard to fault a song which boasts an opening lyric of "pull up your pants". Even with the transatlantic translation where pants means trousers, it's STILL a killer way to get attention.
And the rest of the song continues in a similarly strident vein. Oh, sure, the point that ladies and gentlemen have different standards of behaviour when it comes to being committed to a relationship has been dealt with more than a few times in other recent R&B songs. But has Beyonce ever openly wished that she could act like a boy? Nu-uh!
And Ciara has a VERY clear idea of the kind of stuff she wants to be able to do. It's not so much the stand-up weeing, the reaching for things off tall shelves, the owning power tools or opening stuck jam-jars, and more the lying, cheating, sneaking around and generally acting like a tom cat with a viagra milkshake, but still getting away with it because boys can't be seen as slappers.
Luckily, the musical backing is more sombre than supercharged and sexy, otherwise this whole song could be seen as a direct call to action for all the girls in the world to stop being so damn nice and put themselves about a bit. And are we REALLY ready for the population explosion such irresponsible behaviour may cause? No, thought not...
PS: Boys, that means you're going to have to behave too, sorry.
Released: April 2nd
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comments
why has ciara made a song called like a boy, when people suspect that she has had a sex change it's a bit of a bad deicision, but the song is gr8!!
i luv the song (like a boy) i luv the video i also fink tht ciara is very gd at singing pls cary on at singin ciara. luv sian xxxx
okay let me break it down ciara does not look like a boy she is just sort of muscular for a girl and she really can't sing but she can reallly dance so that's why she is still around but i like as an artist though.
Hi. Sorry for my english. Happy New Year!!!!!
Good Luck!