Gwen Stefani Pays Tribute to Tevye During the Super Bowl
Never mind the close contest or the 24-21 final score; the real excitement this Super Bowl Sunday came — as usual — not from what happened on the playing field, but from what came onscreen when the game clock was still. The Super Bowl commercial remains one of our best gauges of the Zeitgeist, our roadmap to the national psyche (and at $2.4 million for 30 seconds, it’d better be good for something). But who could have guessed that this year’s map would lead, of all places, to Anatevka?
In a commercial co-sponsored by Pepsi and iTunes, the platinum-tressed pop starlet Gwen Stefani took a page out of Tevye’s playbook and sang of what she would do if she were a “Rich Girl.” In the song, originally a track from Stefani’s album, “Love, Angel, Music, Baby,” the former No Doubt front woman sings, “No man could test me, impress me, my cash flow would never ever end/Cause I’d have all the money in the world, if I was a wealthy girl,” over a hip-hop melody riffing on the score from “Fiddler on the Roof.” Though the spirit of yearning that informed the original doesn’t quite carry over into its 21st-century counterpart, there’s no denying that the tune remains catchy. It was tough to walk through the Forward’s hallways this week without hearing someone scatting “Yadda dadda dadda dadda dum.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.