English pop singer Robbie Williams has apparently touched a raw nerve in Russia with his new music video “Party Like a Russian,” The Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday.
“The popular tabloid newspaper Life published an ’expert panel’ claiming that Williams would never again be invited to perform in the country because, though abrasive humour and self-mockery is fine for Russians, foreigners can’t get away with it,” The Guardian said.
The music video features ballerinas cavorting around Mr. Williams in a mansion as he hails the party lifestyle of Russian oligarchs.
“It takes a certain kind of man with a certain reputation / To alleviate the cash from a whole entire nation,” Mr. Williams opens the song. “Take my loose change and build my own space station / (Just because you can, man) / Ain’t no refutin’ or disputin’ — I’m a modern Rasputin.”
For his part, Mr. Williams denies any political edge to his song, which samples from Sergey Prokofiev’s “Dance Of The Knights.”
“I think the spirit of the record is saying party like a Russian. And we as Brits or you as a New Zealander think that we party really hard,” Mr. Williams told an interview with The Sun newspaper recently, adding, “I can assure you we’re nothing compared to the Russians who are ridiculously good partiers.”
As to whether the video is culturally insensitive, Mr. Williams insists it’s actually toned down from what he originally envisioned.
“I’m not making fun of anybody but I had to take a few things out just to make it more PC — and this is the PC version you’re getting,” he told The Sun.
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
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