Tuesday, April 12, 2011

C'est La Vie

Cheeky Girls "Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum)"



I blame 911. While in the US, we were busy believing everything the tv told us ("get the terrorists over there, before they come over here" or something.... weren't they already here? Ain't that how it happened?), meanwhile the rest of the world was gettin' cheeky with it.

The Cheeky Girls - Popstar The Rivals Auditions



Transylvanian twins Gabriela & Monica Irimia, aka "The Cheeky Girls", were trained ballerinas who, while on holiday in the UK, tried out for the American Idol-esque show "Popstars: the Rivals". Their spirited audition aroused the interest of record label Telstar, who signed them & produced their top 3 hits: "Touch My Bum", "Take Your Shoes Off", & their re-written cover of Boney M's "Holi-Holiday".

Cheeky Girls "Hooray Hooray It's a Cheeky Holiday"



Unfortunately, fame didn't necessarily bring the Cheeky Girls happiness. When Telstar went bust, they allegedly owed the girls over £2 million. The poor girls then started getting bills from people who had helped them in their career. One was the director of their video "Cheeky Flamenco", who had a lot to say about the situation in the description for the video on youtube.

Never ones to give upp on their ambitions, they started doing a lot of TV shows, that tested not only their mental but emotional aptitudes.

"The Cheeky Girls on Discovery Channel's Brainiac"



I can't find their appearance on The Weakest Link, but on Brainiac, they show the effects of stress on a person's performance doing different tasks, like touching bums. I also can't embed the videos for their appearance on the UK TV show "Fool Around With", during which the girls must live in a house with 4 guys, and must put the guys through tests to see which of them is truly single.

During the show, one of the twins falls for one of the boys, who even got naked to convince them that he doesn't have a girlfriend. The guy's name is Graham, and he kinda looks like a guy from their "Have a Cheeky Christmas" video, so it's not surprising that she kinda falls for him. The show's a trip, and the girls get naughty. I don't think American audiences could handle the way this show goes down, but I'd go down on Graham.

Here's an aptly named video of the whole series in fast forward:

X Ray Spex - Obsessed With You feat Cheeky Girls (sPEeDYsNEaKYmiX)



A couple years ago, they started their own make-upp line, presumably marketed toward a younger audience. The fruity fragrance smells so delicious, they consider calling it "eat me", "no, eat us!"

Cheeky Girls Cosmetic Range"



What fascinated me about these girls, aside from their accent, sisterly chemistry & cheekiness, is their work ethic & humility. Even after their smash hits, fame & eventual bankruptcy, they went on another UK wannabe show, Simon Cowell's "Britain's Got Talent." As trained dancers, they wanted to show their talents lay way beyond being Pop Tarts, giggling & shaking their ass. They made it thru the first audition, but not to the semi-finals.

Britain's Got Talent 2010 "Gabriella & Monica (Cheeky Girls) & Darius"



Amidst their trials & tribulations, Gabriela (the more feisty twin) seems to be hounded by headlines, including her well-publicized 2005 affair with UK politician Lembit Opik.

Earlier this year, she was arrested & "cautioned", for stealing groceries.

I haven't had a chance to read every article, and watch every video, but if I find anything else newsworthy, I'll let you guys know. Hopefully them pesky terrorists don't conspire to distract us again, before Monica & Gabriela make it big in the US. Considering what they've been through, and have still persevered, their indomitable spirit would get us through any kinda tragedy, and should be an inspiration to us all. Celebrate 10 years of survival by getting their 2011 Calendar!

I'll leave you with a clip of their 2010 performance of I'm Too Sexy, at what I think was an English Gay Pride party. Again they re-write the lyrics, so although it doesn't officially count, they say they're too sexy for their phone, and make a pseudo "Shaka".


Cheeky Girls - I'm Too Sexy LIVE"

2 comments:

SHAKA ZINE said...

damn! these girls got some shit going on!
first, I'll admit I did edit out a phrase, referring to something personal in one of the girls' lives. It's widely reported, but out of my newfound love for these sisters, I figure, "why repeat it?"

Anyways, uppon further research, we found out that the Cheeky Girls have other shows that are hard to find. Both "reality" shows, but very different. They're hard to find online, but I have seen clips.

The first appears to be the regular kinda documentary style, listening & watching "normal" conversations, like about sisterly subjects. You know.... SEX! It's a frank, open discussion, but they're apparently playing for the cameras.

try watch 'em here.

The other show I can't even watch. It's kinda like Punk'd or Scare Tactics, so I can't sit thru it. I don't like da kine shows where folks are fucked with. Old Candid Camera was fun, because the people they played with, could laugh at the situation. But I only sat thru one episode, to see if I could believe it. I kinda don't, 'cause I don't wanna.

It's called "Killing the Cheeky Girls". I'm happy I didn't find this before posting this blog entry. If it was on my regular page, I might not ever read it. The show's just not "cheeky", from what I can tell, so for Gabriella & Monica to make the show, it's so out of character I worry.

Basically, the story is a famous/rich guy does an experiment on a group of people who believe they're going to be extras in a Cheeky Girls video. They travel across Europe, on a bus, unawares that they're being studied to see how they react to being set-upp.

Four out of the ten people on the tour bus are actors. The other 6 are led to believe some fucked upp shit happens on this transcontinental tour. I had to stop after watching the bus driver (director/rich guy) pretend to hit a bicyclist while driving the bus. As a female "extra" tries to calm the driver down, his terrible acting & fake crying frustrate me so much, I had to turn it off.

Anyway, at the beginning of the webisode, the director dude introduces the premise, and says it all culminates with all the "extras" being interrogated in a Greek prison, questioned about the supposed death of the Cheeky Girls.

I couldn't watch. Although Gabriella & Monica are not the main subjects, so they're barely in the first episode, I just don't wanna witness other people being terrorized via deception. And there is footage of the Girls reacting to the bike accident, so they're complicit in this charade.

Good thing I lost the link. If you really wanna see it, you gotta look. I don't know if HTML has Juju, but I ain't tryna bachi myself with it. Too creepy.

SHAKA ZINE said...

this just in:

Kimiko found a link with some, sorta good news about Gabriela's arrest & "caution" for shoplifing. According to the Cheeky Girls' mom, Gabriela was researching a movie role, in which she plays a gangster. She apparently was told by the director to practice her role, but he meant in the mirror, not on the streets.

check the daily mail for the story