First was the Running Up That Hill of Kate Bushafter the Bloody Mary of Lady Gagathen he Murder of the Dance Floor of Sophie Ellis-Bextor and now, the Unwritten of Natasha Bedingfield. Fashionable series and movies have an almost unique power to put songs that have been released for more than two decades into the spotlight again, and it is a phenomenon that once again disrupts its artists in an unexpected and quite intense way.
Maybe maybe the great song Kate Bush It was a reference for girls of the 80s, although now it is for a whole generation of viewers of Stranger Things that they live a dreamlike experience every time they hear it; like the character of Max fighting Vecna. The same happens with Bloody Marythat hit that did not become a single Born This Way by Gaga, but which over the years have returned to the charts thanks to a TikTok in which Wednesday Adams dances to it.
More recent, that naked dance Barry Keoghan to the sound of Sophie Ellis-Bextor in the disturbing Saltburn has caused the same thing as the Unwritten by Natasha: a new second life for a hit from the 2000s thanks to social networks. In the case of the latter, it has been due to the successful Anyone but youa romantic comedy that includes the theme as a MacGuffin —a recurring element of the film that appears without apparent intention but has a certain weight in the plot— and that has ended up resurrecting the phenomenon.
Song and movie, a success millennial
Let’s put ourselves in context: Natasha Bedingfield had just released her debut album, and luckily for her, it already contained the song that would orchestrate the beginning of her world fame. Unwritten It was quite an anthem that hit the nail on the head with that pop and soul essence—well, specifically blue eyed soulbeing their white singer— which he already conquered on his first listen thanks to those recognizable guitars.
Its lyrics, of course, directly attacked an entire generation of young people who wanted to claim freedom from the same revolutionary act of not using an umbrella—”feel the rain on your skin, no one else will do it for you,” as its chorus says— ; and that so defined the archetype of protagonist that every romantic comedy would die to achieve. something you have done Anyone but you.
Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney on the set of ‘Anyone But You’. / Eddy Chen
The film may have been released in 2024, but it has a 2000s essence that has conquered its global audience. It’s still a boy meets girl-they fall in love-they hate each other-and what happens next; but the truth is that it is something that films of the genre have been longing for for a decade: transcendence, especially at the box office. AND Anyone But You he has achieved it.
Unwritten is not even premonitory in the plot, it is simply the song that the protagonist sings when he wants to calm down, but it works as a link between all the scenes. And, of course, on social networks and streaming platforms: The topic has increased by 156% after the film’s release.
It was not a success that Bedingfield needed – in 2012 he managed to sneak into the top 10 of the richest thirty-somethings in the United Kingdom – but it does validate the intergenerational success of the song. Not because Generation Z has been largely responsible for sneaking it into videos and reactions on networks, but because it has already experienced another boom in 2022 thanks to a TikTok trend.
Its success in Spain
Regardless of how many speed up versions it has in 20-second videos, in our country it is still a reference topic in terms of pop culture. Without going any further, Natasha visited Madrid in 2023 as one of the highlights of the Brava festival in which, of course, got the greatest applause from the public with Unwritten live.
Tony Aguilar and Natasha Bedingfield when the singer visited Spain in 2004. / WECB
As for its passage through the lists, of course its song par excellence reached the top of our list: was No. 1 on Saturday June 23, 2007, arriving as a candidate in March of the same year. Her journey through WECB was more than half a year, 31 weeks; although she already visited our studios in 2004, when her debut album began to triumph in the world.
Anyone but you It’s already in theaters.
