Blake Shelton Cuts Loose With "Footloose"

Oklahoma country music star Blake Shelton premiered the music video for the country-fied reboot of the hit "Footloose" on Thursday's show 'Entertainment Tonight,' for the first time since Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in 1983. "Footloose" was performed for the original 1984 film by music legend Kenny Loggins, and the film is about a town that has banned rock and dancing, will open in U.S. theaters on October 14.
Writer-director Craig Brewer helms a new take of the well-loved 1984 film, which was loosely based on real-life events that happened in 1980 in Elmore City, where students convinced the school board to let them organize the school's first prom, despite an 80-year-old city ordinance banning public dancing. The Oklahoma farming community marked the 30th anniversary of the first prom last year. Shelton tells The Boot. "When I open my mouth, what comes out is country. There's really only one way to approach it when you think of it that way: a fun, uptempo, catchy version just like Kenny Loggins did."
It's no surprise that a movie about dancing features a lot of dancing. However, the video for "Footloose" is incredibly middle American good time and fairly vibrates off the screen with high-octane dance segments from the movie. There's simply no room to compete. The 35-year-old singer wants to cut loose, but he wisely leaves the fancy footwork to others, and choosing instead to sing in a pickup bed and let the energy bubble around him.
The video started as a quiet night, but brings life to a sleepy drive-in theater, and turns into a raucous block party when "The Voice" coach exchanges pleasantries with the old man running the joint and then grabs his guitar and sings the iconic title song from the upcoming film standing in his truck bed, while a bunch of dancers embark on a well-choreographed routine around him. "Footage" and key scenes from the film, which also appears as loyal to the original as Shelton's remake of the theme song, are spliced throughout and it all blends seamlessly that looks just as great now as they did 27 years ago.