We're nearly halfway through the first season of the FOX country music drama Monarch. Love it or hate it, it's hard to argue with the strong musical talents of the lead stars, especially Beth Ditto. Episode 5, "Death and Christmas," picks back up with the Roman family trying to honor their late matriarch Dottie Roman by continuing with the family tradition of a big Christmas in July TV special. While there were festive decorations and certainly a few expected holiday songs like "Silent Night," Gigi Roman (Ditto) shocked everyone by taking a stand and performing a song you wouldn't expect to hear...with a country twist.
Understandably, Gigi was a bit frustrated that she had to dress up as a nutcracker for the annual special while her sister Nicky was a beautiful Christmas queen. Not to mention I think she was just over the whole Christmas in July thing, which I can also appreciate. When it came time for her to perform on the special, she decided to shake things up and give her audience some real country music, and not just some holiday nonsense. While knocking down Christmas decorations around the set, she covered Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" and really brought down the house.
Despite the ridiculous plot points throughout the episode ranging from Nicky, Luke and Kayla plotting to cover up her pregnancy to Albie trying to figure out why Dottie was being blackmailed, this performance was a high point. The banjos and country twang added to the memorable pop song managed to make it stand out a bit from previous covers featured in the series. One of the things I was most looking forward to with this show was the music, and so far, there have been a few memorable moments.
Since it seems like Monarch won't be releasing much original music like its country predecessor Nashville, I'm hoping we get to see more well-known songs that have some added country flair. It certainly makes it more interesting than watching a traditional cover performance and, honestly, could be a great opportunity to present new music to country fans that they might not have initially gravitated to.
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