Speaker of the House music: John Bercow immortalised in Belgian dance single
John Bercow is the unlikely star of a Belgian dance music single called ORDER, which immortalises the Speaker in the form of an imperious, boogieing muppet.
Thanks to his ornate language and bellowing cries across an unruly House of Commons during the Brexit debates, Mr Bercow has become a global media star, including in Belgium.
He may have stepped down as Speaker of the House but Mr Bercow can at least take comfort in that he has been transformed into a speaker on a banging “house” track.
ORDER was released by Micheal Schack, an Antwerp born musician and drummer with several well-known Belgian bands.
In the accompanying video, a Bercow-resembling muppet cries “unlock”, “division” and other Commons catchphrases before bellowing “orderrrrrrr!” in the Speaker’s instantly recognisable style.
Puppets representing Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn fight and dance to the backing of repetitive dance beats and euphoric electronic sounds.
The track is available on Spotify and Apple iTunes and has clocked up 10,577 views in just seven days. MPs will elect Mr Bercow’s successor in London today, the first such vote for a decade.
It is not the first time Belgians have drawn on the world of politics to inspire their electronic music.
Brussels Sound Revolution had a 1989 hit with Qui?, a track sampling a press conference given by former Belgian Prime Minister Paul Vanden Boeynants after he was kidnapped.
A furious Mr Boeynants told reporters his trademark pipe was stolen, asking, “Qui m’a enlevé?” (Who kidnapped me?). This became the basis of the song and the surreal accompanying video.
Brussels Sound Revolution was a high-profile exponent of New Beat, a Belgian genre fusing techno and acid house music in the late 1980s.
Belgium claims to be one of the birthplaces of techno music. Although the country was influential in its development, it is generally accepted that the blueprint of the form was laid down in Detroit, USA, in the mid 1980s.
