Peter Andre says the famous shirtless dancing in a lagoon for his hit 90s single Mysterious Girl was all his own idea.
Speaking about the video for the global hit, the 51-year-old told Sky News: “We were climbing up a waterfall and I said, ‘Guys, this looks like a great location,’ because I was really part of developing this whole image.
“So, I climbed up in my jeans looking at this place, and I went, ‘Start filming here, this looks like great lighting’.”
Peter Andre in a swimming pool in 1996. Pic: Rex Features
The 1995 reggae / dancehall track featuring rapper Bubbler Ranx was a top 10 hit around the world and reached number two in the UK on its re-release the following year.
In the music video, which was filmed in Thailand, a topless Andre dances and sings while inexplicably wearing a pair of jeans and a belt in a lagoon, in front of a waterfall and on a beach.
Andre and his wife Emily MacDonagh. Pic: PA
Now a father of five, Andre says his children have seen the video and are “proud,” adding “but there are also a few eyerolls… to everything [in the video] really”.
Andre married doctor Emily MacDonagh in 2015 and welcomed their third child in April. He has four other children, seven-year-old son, Theo, and daughter, Amelia, 10, whom he shares with MacDonagh, and 18-year-old son Junior and daughter Princess, 16 – whom he shares with his ex-wife, Katie Price.
As for his slicked-back curtain hairstyle – which was very much en vogue at the time – Andre says he misses it: “I wish I carried it on.”
Peter Andre in 1995. Pic: Fryderyk Gabowicz/picture-alliance/dpa/AP
‘A decline of music videos since the 1980s’
Discussing nostalgia and looking back at changes in the music industry, Andre said times have definitely changed. “I think the 80s were when videos were the most important and then it was a slight sort of decline after that. I think 90s was popular, but as it’s gone on, videos have been less effective.”
He added: “If you look at the 80s, specifically, superstars were superstars.
“If Madonna was on the radio, you knew it was Madonna. If Michael Jackson came on the radio, you knew it was Michael Jackson.
“Now there are great songs out there, but you don’t know who’s who unless you’re in with what’s going on on social media. So, it’s a different time.”
Read more on Sky News:
Boxer’s 15-month-old son dies
Rock band postpones US tour after frontman’s cancer diagnosis
Andre was married to Katie Price until 2009. Pic: Reuters
He says the time when “people would wait to go to the store and buy a record and it would be such a huge moment” is long gone.
He admits when recently showing his kids a VHS tape – the way everyone recorded TV and film in the 70s and 80s – they were utterly baffled, asking him “What is that?”
As for his own success in the industry, Andre says he thinks it’s largely due to working with one of the world’s biggest female music stars.
“I can only be grateful for what happened to me because my first big gig was touring with Madonna in Australia in 1980,” he said.
“I was the opening act, the only act actually for the Girly Tour in Australia… And then I came to England as an unknown after selling out arenas in Australia and it was just crazy.”
