Playlist Shura: Childhood

Because every playlist should have an EPIC intro. Jurassic Park was one of my favourite films growing up. How can it not be? Dinosaurs are amazing, and pretty much the only thing other than space that makes science fun at school. I especially love this song because when I used to work night shifts on my own I’d sing this at the top of my lungs to keep myself awake.

This song is the one song that - no matter where in the world I am - if I hear it on the radio I will call my twin and sing it down the telephone at him. There’s just something about it that makes me super happy, and it kind of feels like our song, because no matter how much we annoy each other sometimes (and it can be a lot) we will always love each other. How cheesy am I?!

If you focus on the little guy in this video you literally can’t not laugh. For some reason I really identify with this little guy who is always in the wrong place, dancing to his own tune/slipping over/finding it hard to keep up. It made me laugh hysterically as a kid and I basically think he’s super cute.

The video for this used to scare me so much as a kid. I didn’t understand what was going on, or why Madonna seemed so sad, and why Jesus came to life. Why is she running around so much?! It totally mesmerised me. I think of all her early songs, this one is my favourite, followed closely by ‘Live to Tell’ which is also pretty amazing.

This is a song that my Dad used to sing to us every night instead of reading stories. My twin and I would do the harmonies…or at least I’d think thats what I was doing at the time. I was probably warbling in totally the wrong key. I love listening to the original now because it makes me think back to those days, but also because the textures and sounds of the recording are incredibly interesting and something I want to explore when recording myself - just gotta whip out my reel to reel [tape recorder].

I think this is the game that made me fall in love with gaming. I think I’m still trying to find a game that is as good or is as important to me as Zelda the Ocarina of Time was. This was the song you played on an Ocarina to call your horse Epona, which was my favourite part of the game; riding around on my steed trying to save Hyrule from Ganondorf’s clutches.

I used to run out of the room when my Dad put on Tina Turner because I always thought she was screaming and it scared me. Now I love listening to her. I think this and ‘Thunderdome’ are my absolutely favourites. I also love that she has better legs at 70 than I will ever have in my entire life.

I remember this being played around the house and being really confused by Elton John, who was this mysterious figure wearing a hat and playing a Piano. I think because I loved ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ as a kid, I associated his look with that film, and thought he was like one of the humans from that film, except transported into a cartoon world that obviously wasn’t cartoon. I think that’s where my imagination took me. I really loved this song, and Kiki’s voice too.

I think this was my first experience of ‘Jazz’ and sexiness in music. I loved the way Jessica Rabbit sings this song - I’d never heard anything like it. I was just like - ‘what the hay is going on?’ - but in a great way. I think the sexiness of it went way over my head and I had no idea what patty cake was, but there was something incredibly mesmeric about the way this cartoon woman with the sparkliest dress ever performed in this dingy bar. It’s also what a young me just imagined adult life to be - hanging out in smokey jazz bars with your favourite cartoon characters!

My older brother Olly introduced me to this before I was old enough to reallyappreciate it, and for some years I pretended to like it, to impress him. But yeah - this was my first big introduction into the world of electronic music, and my friends really really didn’t get it. It didn’t go down especially well when I tried to DJ it at what was probably my 10th birthday party…

Tags: Shura, Class of 2015, Listen, Features