Students on De Montfort University’s Music, Film and Entertainment Journalism module pick the films, plays, music, TV shows and books that shaped them
My favourite film
As a hopeless romantic it’s only right that my favourite film is The Fault in Our Stars. Noted that the young couple never got their happy ending, but nevertheless witnessing the beauty of two individuals swoon over each other and fall in love doesn’t get any better than that. Anything extremely sappy is most definitely my cup of tea – sign me up immediately!
(I have yet to visit Amsterdam after having watched this film!)
The TV show I’m currently binging
As a said hopeless romantic, it’s not a surprise that I’m currently binge watching Bridgerton. There’s just something about the build up to romantic love story I’m entirely in awe about. There’s been a numerous amount of different storylines within Bridgerton – arranged marriage to lovers, love at first sight, enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, forbidden love.
Because it’s set in the 1800s, the love portrayed on our screens is so authentic, the men yearn and fight for the love of their lives, whilst the women are swept off their feet. For someone who hates romance films, this probably sounds like a nightmare, but it’s most definitely up my street and for anyone whose favourite genre is romance.
I cannot wait for part one of Season 4! The cliffhanger part one left us on was diabolical.
My favourite TV show/books as a kid
My favourite show as a child was most definitely The Story of Tracy Beaker along with Tracy Beaker Returns, which was a spin off of Tracy when she was older. A core memory of mine was me and my siblings reciting every line from the show as we were watching it as we’d watched it so much – we essentially knew it off by heart!
Fun fact: The Story of Tracy Beaker the book by Jacqueline Wilson came out first. The chokehold Jacqueline Wilson books had on me growing up! All her characters always had such unique backgrounds, rather than your typical nuclear family. Some may say unique, some may say traumatic… potato, potahto.
Reading the book of Queenie for instance, where a young girl who’d been diagnosed with tuberculosis, living with her grandma because her parents were absent/unable to look after her had me hooked like no other – little 11-year-old me couldn’t survive without my daily doses of JW books!
The book I couldn’t put down
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover was phenomenal. The hard and ugly truths of abusive relationships were expertly portrayed. If I could go back time and read it again for the first time, I truly would.
The lyrics I love
Pretty Hurts by Beyoncé is beautiful. It’s a powerful take on body image, self-confidence and empowerment. Any woman who has ever gone through confidence issues will comprehend and find comfort in the lyrics and relate to that feeling of it not matching up to society’s standards.
When the bridge of the song begins Ain’t got no doctor or pill to take the pain away I wholly feel submerged within the song – from the melody to the lyrics to Beyoncé’s voice. It’s truly a work of art.
The song that gets me on the dancefloor
I absolutely love afrobeats. Anything by Rema will immediately get me hyped. Rema is most definitely one of my top afrobeats artists. If I had to choose my favourite song by him, a few would be Ozeba, Kelebu, Bounce, and Bout U. (Apologies, I couldn’t just pick only one). Every one of Rema’s songs begin with ‘Another banger’ and let me just say, it always is!
My karaoke standby
As someone who cannot hold a tune, Adele is the way to get me singing. Clearly my music taste is all over the place, but this is Adele we’re talking about. We’ve all heard the classics, Rolling in the Deep, Set Fire to the Rain, Someone Like You – need I say more?
