To celebrate Fiona Apple's birthday, here's her epic 1997 takedown of celebrity culture
Her "career suicide" moment was brilliantly ahead of its time.
Fiona Apple speaking at the 1997 MTV Video Music awards.
In 1997, singer-songwriter 19-year-old Fiona Apple was a massive breakthrough artist on MTV, having recently scored big hits with āShadowboxer,ā āCriminalā and āSleep to Dreamā from her debut album, āTidal.ā
However, even though she was still a teenager, she was already suspicious of celebrity culture.
When accepting the award for the single "Sleep to Dream" at the MTV Video Music Awards, she gave an impromptu speech taking dead aim at the music industry. She asked the young people watching to stop emulating the stars they see in music videos and to be themselves.
Her speech was a bold move by a young woman in a room full of celebrities, rock stars and industry people. At the time, it looked like she was committing career suicide in front of the world. Twenty-six years later, it seems even more audacious in a world where the notion of being sellout is a Gen X relic and the entire culture is dominated by influencers.
To celebrate Appleās 46th birthday on September 13, people have been sharing the speech on X, formerly known as Twitter.
it's fiona apple's birthday and it's mtv vma. throwback to this iconic speech.ā max richter scale (@max richter scale) 1694561623
Apple began her speech by quoting Maya Angelou: āSee, Maya Angelou said that we, as human beings, at our best, can only create opportunities. And Iām gonna use this opportunity the way that I want to use it,ā she said.
āSo, what I want to say is, everybody out there thatās watching, everybody thatās watching this world? This world is bulls***,ā Apple continued. āAnd you shouldnāt model your life about what you think that we think is cool and what weāre wearing and what weāre saying and everything. Go with yourself. Go with yourselfā¦And itās just stupid that Iām in this world, but youāre all very cool to me so thank you very much.ā
The next year, Apple clarified her remarks to Rolling Stone, but she didnāt apologize for speaking her mind.
āWhen I won, I felt like a sellout. I felt that I deserved recognition but that the recognition I was getting was for the wrong reasons,ā Apple said. āI felt that now, in the blink of an eye, all of those people who didnāt give a f**k who I was, or what I thought, were now all at once just humoring, appeasing me, and not because of my talent, but instead because of the fact that somehow, with the help of my record company, and my makeup artist, my stylist and my press, I had successfully created the illusion that I was perfect and pretty and rich, and therefore living a higher quality of life. Iād saved myself from misfit status, but Iād betrayed my own kind by becoming a paper doll in order to be accepted.ā
Appleās speech at the 1997 VMAs appears to be a roadmap for the rest of her life. Since then, she has gone on to create one great album after another while eschewing the phoniness of celebrity culture. The āFetch the Bold Cuttersā singer even canceled an entire tour in 2013 because her dog was dying. Apple isnāt on social media and she seems completely content to spend her time watching court cases and spending time with her dog.
The Northern Lights in Sweden.Photo: David Schreiner/Folio/
A rooftop in Stockholm, Sweden. Emmie Bolmstedt/Visit Sweden
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