David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ gets new video to mark 50th anniversary
David Bowie in the 2019 Mix of “Space Oddity”. Image: Screengrab from YouTube/David Bowie
The new video premiered on Saturday, July 20 at a National Aeronautics and Space Administration event held at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
The visual, which was directed by British filmmaker Tim Pope, features never-seen-before footage of David Bowie performing “Space Oddity” at his 50th birthday concert in New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1997.
It also includes footage shot and directed by Moroccan-Canadian choreographer Édouard Lock, who notably founded the Montreal dance troupe La La La Human Steps, for the onscreen backdrop of Bowie’s 1990 “Sound & Vision” tour.
The premiered video may be exclusively viewed on the official David Bowie YouTube channel, via this link.
For the video, longtime Bowie producer Tony Visconti created a new mix of Bowie’s space anthem, which also appears on a seven-inch box set released ahead of the song’s 50th anniversary.
The record also includes a new version of his 1969 single “Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud”, which was originally released as a B-side to “Space Oddity”.
Earlier this month, Mattel also announced a new “Ziggy Stardust” Barbie, tethered to the “Space Oddity” anniversary.
The special edition doll features a red and blue striped spacesuit with red platform boots, alluding to Bowie’s iconic character based on his 1972 album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars”. HM/JB
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