If you grew up in the nineties and you like cars, it is more than plausible that you had a giant poster of a Lamborghini Diablo in your room. Although a server always preferred the Ferrari F50, the Diablo represented the excess that were the nineties in the world of cars. It wowed us, and made us even more car fanatics than we expected. Thus, there is no video clip that better represents the spirit of the nineties than the fantastic “Cosmic Girl” of Jamiroquai, and the cars that appear in it.
“Cosmic Girl” was the second single from Traveling Without Moving, Jamiroquai’s third studio album. Classified under the “funk” genre, it was the album that launched the band to stardom, which had already done well with their second album. The leader of the band Jay Kay, is one of the largest petrolheads in existence, and already at the time he demonstrated it with his extravagant car acquisitions. The video for the song – which by the way is one of my favourites, as well as being timeless – revolves around cars.
The SE30 special edition brought the power of its 5.7 V12 to 530 hp.
And specifically, it revolves around the Spectacular purple Lamborghini Diablo SE30 Driven by Jay Kay. A car that is accompanied by a red Ferrari F40 and a Ferrari F355 GTS Berlinetta. The theme of the video is not complex, far from it: it consists of seeing how supercars enjoy the twisty roads of Cabo de Gata, in Almería, where the video clip was recorded. Part of the video includes some skidding on a loose surface, as well as some very interesting visual effects, recorded at night.
We could end the article here, but there is much more story behind this video. To begin with, the fact that the Lamborghini Diablo is a purple SE30, a special 30th anniversary edition of which only three units were manufactured in that hue. Jay Kay was the owner, and the unit that was going to star in the video was injured by the video producer, before even arriving in Spain. Gossip has it that British weather, old-fashioned 500+ bhp and a heavy foot were to blame for this incident.
The Ferrari F40 belonged to Nick Mason, former Pink Floyd drummer and renowned petrolhead.
Jay Kay, who was on tour in Germany, found an identical unit for sale, with only 2,000 km, and paid £180,000 at the time for it, in order to complete filming. Ignoring specific instructions that no stunt team driver should touch the car before it reached the footage, a camera hit the windshield of the car during the recording of some visual resources. A narrow section of the road, an overconfidence and the proximity to a precipice were to blame.
After the monumental anger of the band leader, the recording continued: in some planes it is possible to see the Devil without a windshield, and Jay Kay driving with too much wind in her face, partially closing her eyes. The recording had to continue, since Jamiroquai had to return to his tour. A few days later Lamborghini sent a new windshield and the recording was able to finish with a functional windshield, concluding successfully. 25 years after its recording, the video for “Cosmic Girl” perfectly evokes the spirit of the times and perfectly accompanies the song.
The story of the recording, as well as photos of the crashed car, are included in the YouTube video that accompanies this article.
It is one of the most iconic video clips for those who love cars and music, and its status is so cult, that even the watch brand Richard Mille has recorded a tribute video called “Speed Tale”, in which the protagonists are a McLaren P1 and a McLaren Speedtail. That video, recorded with pleasure to the rhythm of Jamiroquai’s music, is included below these lines. Do not miss it. One last curious detail: in 2017, the same Diablo used in the recording was sold on the second-hand market for £550,000.
