The media sensation of November 2010 is the ten-year-old Willow Smith.
She is the daughter of Will Smith (singer and actor) and Jada Pinkett Smith (famous to many as the voice of the hippo in Madagascar) and sister of 12-year-old Jaden Smith (Karate Kid 2010). Willow’s debut single is called ‘Whip my Hair’ and released in the UK to download on November 20 and buy in the shops November 21. She turned ten on October 31 and her worldwide impact is a little late in comparison to Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, who had both achieved worldwide fame by the time they were eight.
Wikipedia would have me believe that ‘Whip My Hair’ is ‘a high-tempo R&B hip-hop piece, while incorporating dance-pop and crunk, while drawing from funk and disco influences’. I dare not disagree. The lyrics talk about breaking free and being an individual in the face of difficulties:
Don’t let haters get me off my grind
Whip my hair, if I know I’ll be fine
Keep fighting until I get there
When I’m down and I feel like giving up
I whip my hair back and forth
What does it mean?
‘What exactly does “whip my hair” mean?’ asked TV chat show host Ellen Degeneres (echoing most of our nonplussed reactions) after Willow’s first live TV performance on her show on November 2. Willow Smith answered: ‘It means I’m me and I’m doing what I wanna do!’ Apparently, when you want to be you, it is normal to throw your head around. Degeneres follows the motherly response and gives Willow a neck brace to wear for her future performances because she is worried about whiplash, the obvious downside to a creating this type of cult dance move. No doubt there will be attempted lawsuits to follow.
Released in the States back in September, the single and video has already gathered pace and critical comment is largely positive, referring to the track and the feel of the video as kid-friendly and playground appropriate with a wider dance appeal similar to adult performers such as Rhianna. Willow Smith makes Miley Cyrus of Disney’s Hannah Montana fame look a bit air-brushed next to her style, creativity and energy. She doesn’t convey the worryingly dumbed-down allure of a child beauty queen but concentrates on a fearless confidence that is pure cool.
There is no doubt that Willow puts her own stamp onto all that she does. As her own father said: ‘You don’t work with Willow, you work for her!’ She has already released her own fashion line and has recently travelled around the world with her family during the marketing of the recent Karate Kid film starring her brother.
Elephant in the room
This is all very well and lots of fun, but we need to recognise the elephant in the room by asking, ‘What happens next?’ Can this level of excitement over a ten-year-old really be sustained without it all going horribly wrong for her? The reality is that ever since Shirley Temple’s debut aged six and Jackie Coogan’s first appearance in Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid, certain highly talented children have attracted worldwide attention with their extraordinary performances. But like the more recent Drew Barrymore and Macaulay Culkin, these child stars have become well known, in part because of their fall from public favour in their teenage years. It seems that too much fame, money and acclaim too soon does not work in a child’s favour.
Watching Willow and her best friend sitting in a booth answering questions live online, they seem like a couple of normal Year 5 children as they giggle about bits of her video, like the grandmother doing the splits and the baby dancing. She says that the best thing about ‘doing the project’ is having fun with her friends and family. Willow leaps around and ruffles her hair, seemingly unaware that the rest of the world just doesn’t see it that way. Why not pray for Willow whenever you hear about her in the news over the coming months and years, perhaps using Jesus’s words in Mark 6; that she might live to follow him unashamedly, knowing that there is little point in gaining the whole world if she ends up losing her soul.
