Meaningful moments in pop videos, pt 29

As noted earlier this week, Joe McElderry's new single Ambitions is better than we could ever have expected.

The video is another matter - a cheddarsplendent jazz hands bonanza, which calls to mind Lionel Richie's technicolor gasp-fest, All Night Long.

That said, there is a SIGNIFICANT and PERCEPTIVE vignette during the second verse. Let us break it down for you.


A besuited city "gent" (let us call him Simon Cowbell) stumbles on a loose pebble while carrying a sheaf of papers.



Oh no! These important financial documents are scattered all over the pavement. Simon will almost certainly lose his job over this.




Don't look now, but a leather jacketed ruffian is coming to cause trouble.
Worst day ever, etc.



But the ruffian is in fact adorable X Factor star Joe McElderry, who selflessly lends a hand to Simon in his hour of need. Phew-eee!



Overcome by our hero's dreamy looks, Simon decides to throw away his documents and become a cowboy, just like he always wanted.



Oblivious to the emotional upheaval he has instigated, Joe boogies nonsensically under a shower of pension documents, share certificates and mortgage applications.


WE EXPECT THIS IS PROBABLY HOW THE BANKING CRISIS MAY HAVE ALMOST DEFINITELY HAPPENED.

Sadly, we can't bring you this pivotal pop moment "in motion" as embedding has been disabled. The full Joe McElderry experience is therefore available on The YouTube (YouTube).

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Joe McElderry song in "not entirely unlistenable" shocker

Not that I would actually pay to download this from iTunes or anything.
(*hastily disables Ping account*).

Joe McElderry - Ambitions



Snobs will point out that Joe's single is - GASP - a cover version but, look, plenty of perfectly acceptable pop careers have been built on songs the public overlooked first time around (Natalie Imbruglia, Happy Mondays, St Etienne, to name but a few).

Ambitions was originally by Norwegian quintet Donkeyboy, who failed in the UK after deciding that Flock Of Seagulls haircuts and a surfeit of denim somehow constituted "a look".



Their version has a rickety, out-of-sync charm that's missing from Joe's buffed and varnished X Factor production. But there should be a big round of applause for the Syco intern who took their life into their own hands and planted this song amongst the big pile of mediocre twatballads in Simon Cowell's in-tray. Superlative work.

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