Veruschka
by OMD

Album: Bauhaus Staircase (2023)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Veruschka" is Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark's ode to film noir. The title pays homage to Veruschka von Lehndorff, a German model and actress who was active in the 1960s and 1970s. Veruschka is most famous for her role in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blow-Up, which is considered one of the last major films of the film noir genre.
  • OMD singer Andy McCluskey immersed himself deeply into cinema's rich history, drawing inspiration from both film noir tropes and Veruschka's life and career. Lines like "Silhouette against a flashing light " and "A swansong madness, Sunset Boulevard" directly reference the film noir aesthetic and Veruschka's connection to cinema.
  • The music was something OMD's Paul Humphries had started on for his side project with former Propaganda vocalist Claudia Brücken. "I sent it to Andy and he got really excited and wrote an amazing lyric," he told The Sun, "then a great chorus vocal for it."
  • The song is stylistically reminiscent of OMD's 1991 single "Pandora's Box," which was inspired by silent film actress Louise Brooks and is named after the 1929 film Pandora's Box in which she starred.
  • English singer and producer David Watson contributes backing vocals. He first linked up with Paul Humphreys when the pair produced Claudia Brücken's live retrospective album This Happened: Live at the Scala in 2012. Since then, he's regularly contributed backing vocals to OMD's albums.

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