Erm...the queen isn't necessarily the head of state. The monarch is the head of state. Queen Elizabeth II was the head of state because she was the monarch; Anne Boleyn was a consort and therefore not the head of state. However, she was still (at least theoretically) the most powerful woman in the country, so I don't think it detracts from your point. The UK monarch in modern times is also the head of state as distinct from the head of government, which is the Prime Minister. In the US, the President is both the head of state (does symbolic things) and the head of government (leads the government). Henry VIII would also have been both the head of state and the head of government. Currently in the UK, King Charles III is the head of state; Camilla is just queen consort.
OH yes, that's a good distinction to make. Thanks! I think it does inform the meaning of "head" for the writers of Six because they wrote it when the current Queen was the Head of State, so the audience would've been aware of that. But more context is welcome!
She was a consort in that she married into the throne, yes, but she was also an anointed Queen, which Henry only did for one other woman he married, Catherine of Aragon. And that coronation came with a different level of power recognition than her unlucky successors to the position. Yes, they were all "queens," but only two of them were "Queens," if that makes sense.
I’ve always interpreted the verses as Anne’s real self, while the chorus is Anne playing the role she had to in that time. Anne was quite intelligent and very politically minded, but that wasn’t a thing women were “allowed” to be at the time. She shows her brains and ambition, then walks it back by retreating into the persona of a vapid attention seeker: she doesn’t mean any of that, she just likes drama, no need to take her seriously. But then once Henry starts disrespecting her, she shows her true colors, bringing the power chords in to show that this time, she means every word she said, as well as acting as a sardonic challenge for Henry to keep his cool- a challenge he obviously fails given his later marital behavior. And honestly, his earlier behavior. Anne did some revenge flirting so Henry had her killed. Who really lost their head there?
Regarding your point about the persona she puts on in this chorus, I think the choreography is a perfect reflection of that. In the first chorus she looks like a doll or a puppet, putting on the act she needs to put on. But in the second chorus, the choreography starts off similar before she starts to let loose more, thus showing her true colours.
I was just about to comment the same thing! For me, DLYH represents feminine rage, ambition, and power breaking through the "ladylike" veneer - we may end up with our heads chopped off (mostly metaphorically, these days xD), but DAMN did it feel good to be honest, loud, and powerful for those few minutes!!
Also, Anne chose to be beheaded so Elizabeth I would have her rights to the throne, giving England one of the greatest monarchs known to this day- Which was honestly quite a smart move from Anne- she could’ve chosen to live but she didn’t
@@kathyroxable Uhhhh, I'm not sure what you're into lol. Although a general thing I could recommend is Tonio Guajardo, he makes videos on mental health and stuff and posts somewhat a lot!
what i also find interesting about avril being one of the inspirations for anne boleyn is that she's the epitome of "not like other girls", and that's definitely one of the traits attributed to her in pop culture
something else that wasn't mentioned here to do with the lily allen inspiration is the fact they emphasise her importance to britain through her accent! certain lines in the song have been written to fit lily's style of singing (like 'don't be bitter, cos i'm fitter') and even the parts where she says something in french are sung in a decidedly english way lol! the way that lily sings, and also how anne sings in this song (will say that i'm kinda specifically referring to the original recordings and other british versions of the musical since those are the ones i'm most familiar with lol) makes her seem more down to earth and relatable, something that pop culture depictions of anne have definitely emphasised! overall i think it just makes her feel a lot more connected to the audience, since she's probably one of the most famous (and beloved) british queens known across the world!
Even Andrea Macasaet (the OBC Anne) sings "Don't be bitter 'cos I'm fitter" with a fake British accent. I thought it's just because it's a very British expression. But great point.
"let them grumble; that is how it is going to be" would actually not be the best translation considering english has "haters gonna hate" which is a lot closer to the french original in both meaning and form.
It’s always struck me that DLYH is that it’s the only Queens song that isn’t recontextualized in the finale. Instead, Anne references the opening and Henry writing Greensleeves for her. This helps make it clear that by blowing Henry off and ignoring her dads advice to try to get ahead (of state in bed), Anne’s original losing of her head was trying to marry Henry at all instead of being his mistress and getting given a cushy marriage after (like her sister).
Disagree - I think knowing how things worked out for Mary Boleyn made Anne LESS inclined to want anything to do with Henry. When her first husband died, Mary’s in-laws basically tossed her out with nothing and she had to rely on Anne and their family for support. Anne ended up accepting Henry and pushing to be Queen because he scared off all her other potential suitors who didn’t want his sloppy seconds, and she didn’t want to end up disgraced and discarded like her sister.
BTW: My pick for the next queen is Catherine of Aragon. I'm very biased towards her as someone who's raised Catholic. Plus, she's got the Beyonce/Gloria Estefan factor!
Please do I don't need your love next - as a SIX scholar in my own right, the song delights and frustrates me with how it presents historical Parr, but I'd love to see how its musical structuring ties into that, especially given the remix at the end!
When you say frustrates you, are you referring to how in real life Catherine Parr didn't do anything when her husband Thomas abused Elizabeth when she was young?
Yeah the love song to Thomas Seymour when that relationship was really one of Parr's biggest missteps (allowing him access to and abuse of Elizabeth) and it ultimately led to her death (in childbirth, her first despite being married twice before). Parr is known as the survivor but what comes next is pretty grim.
@@annarose932 Yeah, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth especially since we just had K-Howard's song about that EXACT THING (there were FOUR!! choruses). I do get WHY Parr presents it that way. She did need to set herself up as distinct from the other Queens in some way, and it actually is a neat trick that folds into the story/reveal of the twist at the remix: she tells the sappy love story version of things because that's what audiences are trained to care about, but also acknowledges that this line of thinking SUCKS ("Why should that story be the one I have to sing about, just to win? I'm out").
Hey Howard, I think for analysing Six the musical, because you have done a vudeo on the two queens that were beheaded, I think you should look at the two queen who were divorced, Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleeves. Looking at the two queens who have been stereotyped as boring, dull and 'ugly', and how Six changes that by portraying both as confident, powerful and determined. And then to look at the portrayal of Jane Seymour and Katherine Parr, and their songs explaining their love lifes. I think that would be the best choice for your channel 😊
This video is awesome! I have mixed opinions on Don't Lose Your Head (mostly because it seems like Anne Boleyn more than most of them gets stuck with the pop culture portrayal), and you articulated them perfectly in this video and provided added depth that I hadn't really thought of. I think the thing that bothers me the most is that the "politics, not my thing" line really isn't true of her. Sure, it's the perception, that she was a party girl, but part of her downfall was being too involved with politics, and unwilling to play the submissive "I'm just a woman" part like Catherine Parr was. She gets dialog lines suggesting it's not the case, but for some reason the line's inclusion in the song, what's the most memorable, just rubs me the wrong way. Her downfall was as much because she pissed off Thomas Cromwell (Henry's chief minister, basically the "hand of the king" or "royal vizier" to use other pop culture terms), who didn't like that a woman dared express her opinions to him. If Anne gets another musical adaptation, I really want to see one that can go more in depth and play off her rivalry with Cromwell. There's inspiration for some amazing counterpoint duets in their interactions, and I'm chomping at the bit for those sorts of musical interactions that AREN'T leading to some enemies to lovers trope. On what to do next: I'd love if you could do "Get Down" (although "No Way" would be a close second for my vote). Give me some Anna von Cleve living her best single life. (NGL, I have an awkward mix of interest and dread for when you get to "I Don't Need Your Love" because while I cognitively know that the point is that Catherine Parr is playing up the story people want to hear, of the two lovers who were broken up by the king's desires, Thomas Seymour was a dumpster fire of a human being. Playing up her relationship with him I think counters her other point, about how she was so much more than the dudes in her life, since she comes off as kind of an enabler in how she dealt with Seymour's predatory advances on the young teen Elizabeth. But that's my rant stemming from having a lot of interest in what happened after Henry VIII.)
Honest Anne Boylen is my favorite of the queens in both the musical and history. Also was so glad she talked abour Anne's often innacurate portrayals at 14:16
So happy to see a video essay from you again! I didn't know Avril Lavigne was an inspiration for Anne B. It's one of my fave songs from Six! It gets stuck in my head all the time!
Hey, Howard ! Yep, I picked up on the Avril Lavigne influence from the get go. I always thought "Don't Lose Your Head" sounded so much like Avril's "Girlfriend". (more on this below). However, the pizzicato, carefree side of Anne part was a revelation. I'm not sure where I read it, but apparently, Anne didn't want to seduce Henry VIII at first and (just like her cousin Katherine Howard) she was basically pimped out to Henry by her family. Perhaps, the Avril side was simply what her family wanted to use her intelligence for (power) vs. the Lily side being Anne wanting to use her intelligence to do the thing forbidden for women to do in Tudor times: have fun. Speaking of "Girlfriend", it's funny that the Avril song "Don't Lose Your Head" sounds like is a song about the bad girl persona asking a guy to leave his partner so she can be with him ---- the very thing Anne is known for. However, as you said, Anne is more than that. It could even be she never wanted any of this in the first place. I definitely would like you to break down "I Don't Need Your Love". Catherine Parr is my favourite queen from Six. Plus, well, I do love my jazzy, RnB style songs.
Watching these always remind me that there's an entire world of history and literature and knowledge about subjects I know nothing about. And that there's always more to learn
Wait why do I know all of those arias when the closest I have ever come to watching an opera is watching The Phantom of the Opera? Seriously where did I hear these? I don't even know anyone who studies music much less classical music. In fact, I have no idea how RU-vid decided to recommend this channel to me but I am glad it did.
Wonderful, as always! Aragon’s my favourite because I can sing her, but Catherine Howard destroys my soul every time! (And my wife has played her before in a show)
oh that's glorious. Just as glorious as Anne herself. It's a hard choice, but I'd really love to see I Don't Need Your Love or Get Down--but honestly i love all the songs so I'll eagerly watch them when you get there!
Please tell Margaret to create a RU-vid channel! As much as I love seeing her pop up in one of yours or Brendon's videos, I would absolutely watch video essays from her discussing all things Broadway - especially vampire musicals!
this is so good! don't lose your head is one of my fave songs in the musical and im so happy you tackled it for a video! i do wanna see a video about either I Don't Need Your Love or Heart of Stone tho!
Mad scenes are famous in all forms of western theatre and ballet as well. Giselles "mad scene" is fantastic and the "dying swan" finale to swan lake is essentially a mad scene. And of course the three most famous Shakespear plays all have a woman madness scene: we had the "Out Damned Spot" soliloquy by Lady McBeth, Ophelias suicide in Hamlet, and Juiliets first attempted suicide and later sucessful suicide. I think this writing of women as being overly emotional and quick to insanity is pretty hard baked into all elements of western society and probably extends beyond it as well.
Fascinating as always. I have no idea how much of these the composers and orchestrators actually thought of, but the use of distorted power chords at the end is definitely impactful.
Please do No Way 🙏 Catherine of Aragon and her relationship with Henry 8th and Anne Boelyn always utterly fascinated me even as a child, and while we often like to give Anne the crown for being the one to challenge the status quo, I like to think that Catherine Aragon was just as much of a pioneer as she is the one that made it fashionable/trendy to educate daughters through her giving Mary education and donating to universities.
Thank you for your Six the Musical series. Doesn’t matter which song you do next - just ever grateful for all of your insights and hard work. Hanging in here until the next one! X
While Anne's song is my favourite, I do kinda feel like she was in a way the most done dirty by the writers in terms of her character in the show. Six in a way is all about putting queens who have been historically portrayed unfairly, even as villainous seductresses, in a new light. Still, Anne's characterization kind of makes her the villain of the show, particularly in her rivalry with Catherine of Aragon. Many of the other queens get a portrayal that feels like a completely new side: Catherine of Aragon as a rightfully scorned woman, Katherine Howard as a girl who was taken advantage of by men around her, and Catherine Parr who thinks of herself as a writer first and a wife to Henry second. Anne Boleyn, on the flip side, stays relatively close to the popular imagination of her, but she's just girlbossified. Then again, we love a villain and I would argue the girlbossification works because we're rooting for her all the way through. (My runner up for most done dirty by the show is Jane Seymour, who has my least favourite song. I feel like they could have had a lot more focus on how unhealthy Henry's obsession with her was. Who the hell commissions a family portrait featuring your dead third wife while you're on wife number 6?)
I think Anne Boleyn being the antagonist also makes sense since she is clearly the most famous of the six queens and the one that still gets dramatized in films and TV shows. In a way, she has the most to lose if she doesn't "win" the competition.
Another thing to point out about power in the title of the song is that it's a command; Don't. Not a question or a request, it's a command creating a high power status.
Mad Scenes are also very much a thing in musical theatre still. They're often some of my favorite numbers when everything is going wrong and the character completely breaks. Roses Turn, No Good Deed, Last Midnight, Cabaret. It's funny, they often are the 11:00 number because of what they mean character and story wise.
Wow! I love how yoy break things down!❤️❤️ Ican actually understand while watching and it makes me sooo happy😊😊(unlike others where maybe i don't feel as smart because it's too technical for me, just someone that enjoys music) I'd love to hear all you wanna do... though if you'll eventually do all of them over time i really don't mind which one comes next😊😊
Id love analysis about any of the songs, but the mega six at the end would be fun to hear about, im sure they all come together at the end in some significant way lol
I think it is cool to point out that in the beginning of the live action, Anne Boleyn has this bratty voice. However by the last chorus the brattiness goes away and she sounds a little frantic.
14:26 Was Anne's personality in The Tudors series partially historically inaccurate? I wonder what it would be like if the series was much more accurate, and could've gotten a TV14 or MA rating.
So there's a dimension to the original to the lyrics that can get (understandably) lost in adaptation. Don't Lose Your Head is written for a British accent - there are a lot of words that lean on Glottal Stops (where t sounds are skipped) "couldn't be beʔer, then he sent me a leʔer and...", with "letter and" becoming almost a single word in the form of "le-ah-and". To a British ear, this is intended to sound lower class and less sophisticated.
Is there any way you still know on what page this quote from Catherine Clement is? "She is the very pure, very free, Carmen. My best friend, my favorite … She is the image, foreseen and doomed, of a woman who refuses masculine yokes and who must pay for it with her life" Also great video
Great video. Only tiny correction is that Anne, by virtue of being married to a king is not the head of state. Her husband was as the Sovereign, and herself the consort. Queen Elizabeth II was referred to as head of state in your videos as she herself was a Sovereign in her own right
Solid analysis of a bop of a song, shame the musical itself--despite claiming every 3 seconds that its whole schtick is giving these women their due and looking at them as more than just wives to their husbands--doesn't bother to actually acknowledge that "portrait as painted by men who feared (and hated) her" vs "historical reality of her as a well educated and savvy woman" bit. The show does both her and Jane dirty tbh
