Myanmar’s Tiger Girls, Tricky, Missy, Baby, Chili, and Electro, sing original songs and dance to hip-hop influenced pop music. They wear short and stylish outfits and sing in both English and Burmese.
The group is striking a chord with youth in Myanmar, but, since there isn’t much of a precedent for Western-style groups like this, the initial reaction was cautious. Female singers in Myanmar are usually a little more conservative and sing a lot of older, traditional songs.
Their expatriate Australian manager Nicole May told Reuters about the girls’ debut at an outdoor music festival:
“The crowd didn’t know to what to think because the Tiger Girls are a very new concept for a girl band in Myanmar,” said May. “Hopefully these Tiger Girls can be role models for other Myanmar youth.”
Uh, that’s cool and all. Freedom of expression is awesome and these girls are talented and adorable. But, like, does every country in the world need a horde of skinny, gyrating, scantily clad women for young girls to look up to?
Fortunately, rappers like MC J-Me and other young artists and activists also seem to have a lot to say. And according to some reports they are carefully finding space to say it. The Tiger Girls are just an especially catchy example.
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kumondra.com