Ode to Initial Talk's 80s 'New Rules' Remix

Dua Lipa's New Rules, released in the summer of 2017, spent eight non-consecutive weeks at number one on the singles chart and is approaching 2 billion views on Youtube.

The tropical house / EDM / electropop hit was played to death over commercial radio, but something that may have slipped past you is the incredible remix from Initial Talk, who offer up an early example of Synthwave, 'a genre of electronic music influenced by 1980s film soundtracks and video games.' -(Wiki).  This particular track was uploaded to Youtube in October '17, accompanied with footage from the Miss Teen Canada Pageant '88. It's since amassed 5 million views.

Here's the original Miss Teen Canada Pageant '88 video, a great 80's treasure featuring rapping, gymnastics, big perms, singing hosts, lens flare and hockey jocks.

Credited in both videos is a 16-year-old Sandy Struss, Miss Teen Kamloops, who- having reached the final- was awarded Miss Teen Fitness.

Wikipedia tells that Kamloops, in south-central British Columbia, is located on the west coast of Canada at the confluence of the two branches of the Thompson River and east of Kamloops Lake.

I caught up with Sandy over Twitter to ask her about the tournament.

“The pageant was a beautiful memory for me from a lifetime ago. I honestly don’t remember how I heard about the pageant, but it was the first Miss Teen Kamloops competition ever and I thought it might be a neat opportunity. I was a top student in school, played the piano, and was a competitive swimmer. Through the pageant, I got training in public speaking and formal presentation (i.e. walking on a stage in high heels and a gown) and it turned out I was pretty natural on a stage. I learned how to deal with nerves in front of a large audience - an invaluable life skill! I ended up winning the scholastic achievement award, the talent award, and the public speaking award in the Kamloops pageant, and ended up winning the whole thing at age 16. Then it was off to Toronto to film and compete in Miss Teen Canada on national television!

Miss Teen Kamloops with Miss Teen Calgary, 1988

“Honestly, the whole thing was a big adventure and a learning experience unlike anything I had ever been exposed to before. Being in front of TV cameras and then to have to speak into a camera (while seeing my own reflection in it - a very weird experience!) was new, and going through all the behind-the-scenes preparations was a whole other world. What a grand life experience for a teenager! And to have the support of friends and teachers from school back home (I remember getting a good luck telegram from my school - this was before the Internet!) was heartwarming. I ended up being the first-runner-up to Miss Teen Canada, and you can’t imagine the fanfare that awaited me back home at the airport and the cards and well wishes afterwards (even in the newspaper!) of how proud the city was to have me to represent Kamloops. I was just a small town girl. It was amazing.

“The fitness competition in the national pageant was a whole series of tests done at a fitness institute to measure strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular health (hooked up to monitors to see pulse while running on a treadmill) - and while I was never a jock at school, I guess my years of swimming had served me well as I ended up winning the fitness category and Miss Teen Fitness! In those days, there was no bathing suit category. It was fitness. Winning that is what got me featured in that ridiculous dance number which was taped for the pageant (the original can be described as nothing short of embarrassing) - and now all these years later, somebody remixed the footage to the amazing Dua Lipa music!

“The pageant was a beautiful memory for me from a lifetime ago. In my mind, it marks the end of an era as a year later I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (the autoimmune kind) and life was never the same again.”

Neither Dua Lipa nor Initial Talk were available for comment. For more Synthwave, check out Digitally Imported.