BARCELONA, Feb 8 — Have you ever heard of Violetta?
I suspect the answer is no. But I can assure you that across large parts of Europe and South America, Violetta is a cultural phenomenon.
Initially the star of a self-named children’s television show, Violetta has broken out into the world of pop and is currently in the early stages of a world tour which started last month, continuing until September and is seeing her perform in packed arenas from Madrid to Milan, Paris to Porto Alegre, Budapest to Buenos Aires.
In total, the tour will encompass 98 shows, 46 venues and 18 different countries, employing the use of (according to the official tour blurb) 4,500kg of confetti and 20,000kg of pyrotechnics for the European leg alone.
Yes indeed, Violetta may still be unknown in Asia, but in my part of the world she is a veritable megastar.
Here, however, is the twist: Violetta does not actually exist. She is an invention, a fictional character, created by a television production company and performed by an Argentine actress named Martina Stoessel.
And it will be no surprise to learn the name of that production company: Disney, providing further evidence that (ahem) wholesome American values are attempting to take over the world and that we are gradually all becoming the
same.
The show is recorded in Stoessel’s home country Argentina, originally in that nation’s native Spanish language but dubbed into local tongues depending on which regional variation of The Disney Channel is broadcasting it.
And despite a flimsy storyline of a deeply talented teenager (Violetta) trying to make her way in the music business whilst also negotiating the apparently universal trials, tribulations and romances of adolescence, it has now reached 240 episodes, each 45 minutes in length.
As a father of girls aged nine and six — the perfect target audience — I must confess that I have been assailed by the full Violetta experience in the last few months.
Our home is littered with official Violetta merchandise, including CDs, sticker books, posters, stationery sets, bags, diaries, notebooks, T-shirts, duvet cover and pillow case… and probably a few more which have temporarily escaped my direct line of vision.
On the whole, I don’t mind. Little girls will be little girls, and the values espoused by the show/songs/concerts/brand are largely positive: be nice to your friends and family, try your hardest and enjoy your life – whilst singing and dancing your way through every day, of course.
I do have, however, some reservations, starting with the shallow emphasis on appearance, a hallmark of all Disney productions. A happy acceptance of personal vanity and a disciplined commitment to looking pretty are clearly important parts of World Violetta: the show doesn’t contain any overweight people and Violetta/Martina herself is thin to the point of anorexia. She must surely be the cause of many eating anxieties amongst confused pre-teen girls.
I’m also offended by the gross insincerity and obvious artificiality of everything surrounding the brand. With gleaming white teeth, heavily coiffeured hair and fake smiles abounding at every turn, Violetta is as far removed from “real life” as it is possible to imagine.
If children grow up expecting their lives to turn into the sunny and shiny spectacle they have seen on Violetta, they will be sorely disappointed.
There is also the issue of Disney-led cultural homogenisation. Part of the reason my wife and I decided to move to Spain was to give our children a new and mind-expanding cultural experience, not so they would become slavish devotees of a Disney-produced vanilla children’s soap which is broadcast everywhere from Santiago to Stuttgart.
That, however, is the way of the modern world. Venezuela and Poland, for example, are not countries with much in common: in terms of language, climate, history, traditions and cultural heritage they are — as they are geographically — thousands of miles apart.
Yet the youth of both countries clearly boast an (un)healthy obsession with Violetta, giving her platinum record sales and selling out enormous concert venues.
But what can you do? Every generation of children has its pop culture favourites (as so, indeed, do their adult counterparts), and Violetta is more harmless than many.
Besides, my children are already annoyed enough about being among a small number of classmates not to have their own mobile phones: turning them into playground outcasts by banning them from watching/listening to/looking at Violetta as well would be a step too far even for a grump like me, and impossible to enforce in any case.
In the end, I can of course accept that watching and listening to Violetta will not leave my or any other children scarred forever, and that their general upbringing and life experiences will exert a far more meaningful long-term impact upon the future direction of their lives and happiness.
They will soon come to realise, independently of whatever media they happen to consume, that the world is not the sugar-coated, sweet-melodied, choreographed-dance playground as depicted.
And maybe I should chill out a bit — it’s only children’s TV and music, after all. But I can’t help feeling that the world’s biggest and most famous entertainment company could come up with something a little bit more creative, thought-provoking and maybe even educational.
Is that too much to ask?
* This is the personal opinion of the writers or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
