We Are Lady Parts Was Already One of TV’s Best Shows. Then Malala Got on a Horse
The post We Are Lady Parts Was Already One of TV’s Best Shows. Then Malala Got on a Horse appeared first on Consequence.
The critically acclaimed British import We Are Lady Parts is one of those shows where, as soon as you give it a chance, you’re immediately hooked. Sweet, raw, powerful, and hilarious depending on the moment, the story of an aspiring all-Muslim women punk band is packed with imagination and great music, thanks to creator Nida Mansoor and a brilliant cast: Anjana Vasan as lead guitarist Amina, Sarah Kameela Impey as band founder/lead vocals Saira, Faith Omole as bass player Bisma, Juliette Motamed as drummer Ayesha, and Lucie Shorthouse as band manager Momtaz.
The second season, streaming now on Peacock, takes the series to a whole new level — not just because author/activist/icon Malala Yousafzai is a guest star. For the band Lady Parts has managed to find a bit of an audience, and now faces the challenges that come with success.
“The writing of Season 2 was drawn a lot from experiences I was seeing come through my writers’ room, and definitely my early experience in the industry when I was really struggling to break through, and I felt the only way for me to break through was to write stories that didn’t feel true to myself, or where I felt I had to compromise,” Mansoor tells Consequence. “We Are Lady Parts has been my safe space to express myself truthfully, which is why I felt empowered to go there in Season 2. Those experiences came from a truth within my writers’ room and from my early career, for sure.”
There’s still so much joy to be found in the show, especially when it comes to its vibrant musical sequences, a mix of original tunes and covers played by the four leads. Every member of the Lady Parts band has a different level of familiarity with their instruments, working hard with series composer Shez Manzoor.
“His patience is incomparable,” Impey says. “Coming to the music in the second [season], because we had less time and the music was more complicated, really challenged all of us. But because we all knew each other’s skills and how we learn, we went to each other and went, ‘How are you with this bit? Are you struggling with this? Do we need it to slow down?'”
“Yeah,” Vasan says. “It’s sometimes like, ‘I can’t actually like physically do that bit while singing the line, so can you do that half of the line and I’ll join in on…?’ We were very good at helping each other navigate tight corners of a song.”
One song Vasan remembers the band struggling with is Amina’s new self-empowerment anthem, “Villain Era.” “I think we all collectively asked for ‘Villain Era’ to be slowed down like by this much, because we were like, ‘This is not actually possible to sing and play, and forget about acting. Forget about all of that. Just doing that was not actually possible, because it was so much faster before. But we help each other out and we figure it out together, which is what’s nice.”
In Season 1, Lady Parts covered Queen and Dolly Parton — Season 2 expanded their musical range a bit with Extreme’s “More Than Words,” Hoobastank’s “The Reason,” and Britney Spears’ “Oops I Did It Again.” Mansoor says that when it comes to covers, “I knew I wanted a Britney cover because why wouldn’t anyone want a Britney cover? And so that was very much in the script early, early on. I feel like so much of the music I want to put in is a mixture of being open and feeling what songs spoke to me, but also what songs would make my inner child jump for joy.”
The standout cover, though, may be Faith Omole’s performance of Nina Simone’s “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” which came about “very organically,” Mansoor says. “I remember hearing Yusef Islam/Cat Stevens do a cover of that song at Glastonbury and turning to my producer being like, [Bisma] should do this song, right? And he’s like, yeah.”
Vasan and Impey both loved getting to cover “More Than Words” and “Oops I Did It Again,” but it was “Faith’s Nina Simone moment” (Impey’s words) that they were most excited to talk about. “I wasn’t there when it was filmed, but I’d heard a lot about the prep, and actually seeing it, yeah, it completely blew me away,” Impey says.
Vasan was on set that day to shoot another scene, so she got to watch the filming. “It was all in one take, and they used the live take [in the show], because it’s just stunning,” she notes.
Mansoor says they were able to get the rights to every song they wanted for the season, crediting that to the success of Season 1: “We were able to clear these great songs because there’s love for the show,” she says, especially given that it’s about “honoring musicians.” Also, Mansoor says music supervisor Hannah Dunnell and the team was “incredible… [Dunnell] was immediately like, ‘Alright, you want Nina Simone? Let’s go.’ It was one of the first things we were doing as I was even just writing the show, because we’ve gotta start looking into clearing that early on.”
We Are Lady Parts (Peacock)
As for original music, Mansoor says that one of the very first ideas she had for Season 2 was “I wanted to write a song called ‘Malala Made Me Do It.’ And I didn’t think in any way that she would ever be involved in the show, because Malala is this incredibly serious important figure.”
However, Mansoor then went to a talk Yousafzai gave, “and I saw her love of comedy. She had such a dark, witty sense of humor, and like a playfulness. And I was like, oh, maybe she’ll go for this. So I wrote a letter, I reached out to her team, and she said, yes, she watched this show, she loved Lady Parts. She was so keen to be part of it and it was honestly such a joy to work with her on set. She just lifted everybody up and was so gracious and kind. We were all just completely blown away that she said yes, but I think there’s small part of me that believed she would, just having seen that she loves comedy, that witty sense of humor that she has.”
Shooting with Yousafzai for the “Malala Made Me Do It” sequence, Vasan says, “was so fun. It was a really amazing day on set. She was so game and so up for anything.”
One detail Vasan particularly enjoyed was that “it was really iconic to put her on a horse,” comparing it to Beyonce’s Renaissance album cover. “Malala, Beyonce. Only icons on horses.”
Impey says that while they were shooting, “we were chatting to her quite a bit, and obviously because the lyrics are about her, I was like, ‘What is it like listening to these lyrics over and over again?’ And she was like, ‘Oh, you know, I don’t claim to do anything to anyone, but yeah, I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying it.’ And then, slowly, you could just see this smile coming on her face.”
“Malala Made Me Do It” is a bop for sure, but Mansoor’s favorite new song from the season was the track “Glass Ceiling Feeling,” which tackles some of the season’s biggest themes about identity and self-expression. “it was the most challenging song to write,” Mansoor says, “and it was one which really quite departs from the traditional We Are Lady Parts sound, and speaks to a more serious theme of feeling boxed in at times. And it was extremely cathartic to get to write that song.”
Key to that catharsis was the frustration that Mansoor and the writers wanted to explore, when it comes to “self-expression when you are from a Muslim background. Just as you’re brushing up against the mainstream, there’s that feeling of ‘How can we remain creating art and be visible… But also, what are the barriers, the kind of limitations we’ve not only put on ourselves, but feel from wider society?’ That was just something that felt so truthful for everyone in that room.”
Thus, as the band gets a real shot at breaking into the industry, they have to grapple with what means for their identity as Muslim artists — especially in politically turbulent times. Impey says that “it’s really incredible to be in anything that can have a voice, and doesn’t have to be too afraid to say what everyone is thinking. But we did have many meetings about [the political material] because, of course, it’s a sensitive subject, so it’s important to feel for everyone to feel comfortable in, in what they’re saying and expressing.”
“I think what’s wonderful about Lady Parts is that I think the comedy allows for very heavy things to be held,” Vasan adds. “And I think that all the characters go through such really existential journeys in this season and ask really big questions about who they are and their identity and their place in the world. And sometimes that comes up against bigger things in life that are happening around them, and what’s their voice and place and voice in this, you know?”
Continues Vasan, “I think it asks the kind of questions that everyone is thinking about — definitely for a lot of people of color, a lot of Muslim artists, those are the kind of questions, especially as artists, you battle. Like, how political do you want to be? How opinionated do you want to be, and what does that mean if you are? I think [the season] is just a very truthful representation of the kind of conversations that artists are having.”
Impey agrees, adding that “it’s similar in the first [season], that kind of conversation around the Internet and how things can be received, and you get the different experiences of everyone within the same context. I think that’s what’s beautiful about Lady Parts. Everyone experiences it in a completely different way.”
Season 2 was written during the summer of 2023 and shot during the fall, and the political climate of that time (and frankly, today) is felt on screen. “It was, again, from a very truthful place in my writers’ room, as the band is sort of struggling to express themselves,” Mansoor says. “And the political situation became more relevant. So it felt like it had a resonance that has only increased, I suppose, in more recent times.”
We Are Lady Parts (Peacock)
There are no specific references made to any current events, meaning that the scenes which tackle those darker moments represent “a sad reality,” in Vasan’s words: “You take that scene out of context and it could be about anything, about any headline at any time, because the headlines keep coming in about atrocity after atrocity in all parts of the world.”
Vasan quotes something said by one of the characters introduced in Season 2: “‘There is so much fuckery in the world and what are we gonna do about it? What are we gonna say about it?’ I think that is the overarching kind of question and message that Season 2 is asking.”
Additionally, Impey says that “a great thing about the set is that no matter how people arrived on set, everyone was held in what they were feeling. It’s a comedy, it’s based in love and truth and power. So we all made sure that everyone was good before we started filming.”
While Season 2 is now streaming, there’s no official verdict on whether there will be a third season. “It’s all up to Nida,” Vasan says. “It’s so much from her brain and her heart, the show — if her imagination takes her to a place, then it would be very hard for us to say no, because we all love each other and we’re all a bit obsessed with each other. So an excuse to come together and play, it would be hard to say no.”
“Like Anjana said, we are obsessed with each other,” Impey adds. “So even if we’re not getting together and playing as a band, we will be supporting every single thing that anyone does, whether it’s theater, film, a gig…”
As for Mansoor says “I’m not, like, yes or no either way. I make a point to try and wrap up each season because you never know, and so it’s satisfying for the audience. At this moment I’m open. But let’s wait and see what happens.”
We Are Lady Parts is streaming now on Peacock.
We Are Lady Parts Was Already One of TV’s Best Shows. Then Malala Got on a Horse
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