Wonders is a video proposal that makes use of resources proper of music biopics and performance, so to analyze the role of the “one-hit wonder,” probably one of the most symptomatic figures of the neoliberal paradigm that has been permeating our world for the last three decades. In the record industry, the expression “one-hit wonder” is used to name those who have fleetingly achieved massive recognition thanks to one successful hit.

Dennis Seaton and Michael Grant were members of Musical Youth, an English reggae group formed by five black kids. In the early eighties, the band achieved a strong global impact thanks to their first album The Youth of Today, and especially the single Pass the Dutchi, which sold five million copies worldwide and got nominated for a Grammy in 1983. The texts of the script are conceived to be read, played, and sung by both musicians and result from a specific assignment to essayist Eloy Fernández Porta, who makes a reflective and poetic interpretation of the megahit phenomenon.

‘Wonders’ by Carles Congost ©Roberto Ruiz

‘Wonders’ by Carles Congost ©Roberto Ruiz