Zenon and the Art of Making a Heart Go Boom, Boom
An interview with the woman behind "Supernova Girl," Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century's intergalactic banger
It’s Oscar nominations day! While “I’m Just Ken” and “What Was I Made For?” advance to the finals, I’m here to talk about another iconic movie song deserving of recognition.
When the Disney Channel Original Movie Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century first aired 25 years ago(!) on January 23, 1999, it envisioned a future where rock stars perform on space stations and Day-Glo lycra bodysuits pair perfectly with miniskirts and embellished vests.
The 1990s pop-culture landscape had been awash with space content. Studios pumped out blockbusters like Apollo 13 and Armageddon. The Brave Little Toaster got sent to Mars. Nickelodeon had Space Cases, featuring what I thought was the greatest hairstyle of all time.
But none of those other projects had Zenon’s secret weapon: “Supernova Girl,” a futuristic pop song with incredibly on theme lyrics.
We have songwriters Sabelle Breer Frasca and Kristian Rex to thank.
“I had a lot of colleagues who thought this stuff was too cheesy, but I took great pride in doing something super cool with mass appeal that a 10-year-old would like,” Frasca said in a recent video call (Zenon’s preferred method of communication). “I wanted people to connect with this.”
In the film, intergalactic tween Zenon Kar (Kirsten Storms) and her best friend Nebula (Raven-Symoné) are blissfully living out 2049 on a communal space station, until Zenon uncovers an evil corporate plot and is “grounded” to Earth to stay with her Aunt Judy.
“Down on Earth, people with runny noses are packed together like microchips!” Zenon frets (and she’s not wrong!).
Not only is Earth so very crowded and dull but Zenon has an “all-time crush major” on Microbe lead singer Proto Zoa—a spiky-haired cross between Robbie Williams, Ricky Martin, and Lance Bass—who is about to perform a rock concert on the space station.
The world building of Zenon is top notch all-around, forecasting the future in a way that only a Y2K fever dream could. The script, written by Stu Krieger, is a trove of imagined space slang and techie jargon. Zenon rocks a Baby-G watch alongside her data disc earring, and Aunt Judy drives a VW Beetle in President Chelsea Clinton’s America.
For Frasca, a former session singer who’d sung backing vocals for Donna Summer and LL Cool J, “Supernova Girl” wasn’t a particularly memorable gig at the time. The collaborative songwriting session lasted a single day, and the track didn’t have an actual artist attached. But the assignment was simple and fun: craft music and lyrics for fictional pop star Proto Zoa (played by Phillip Rhys Chaudhary) to sing in the movie, the spacier the better.
“It's clearly not a Britney Spears hit,” she said with a laugh. “It's clearly made specifically for this film.”
While Frasca’s own bedroom walls had been populated by posters of David Cassidy and Leif Garrett, she worked with Rex to pen a production-heavy, uptempo track that spoke to young viewers obsessed with the gyrating boy banders who inspired Proto Zoa in Zenon and its 2001 follow-up Zenon: The Zequel.
Not only did “Supernova Girl” make viewers believe that Zenon and Nebula’s squeals for this imagined heartthrob were justified, it served as a certified earworm that’s still rattling around in millennials’ heads a quarter of a century later.
Rex, who died in 2018, had previously written the Smart Guy theme song and was an accomplished performer himself. In fact, he’s the “Supernova Girl” singing voice that Chaudhary lip syncs to onscreen.
Frasca is also a co-writer on Ryan Cabrera’s “On the Way Down,” Stacie Orrico’s “(There’s Gotta Be) More to Life,” and Nobody’s Angel’s “I Can’t Help Myself,” which the girl group performed in both the Wonderful World of Disney classic Model Behavior, and the Boy Meets World roadside diner episode. And now she’s a novelist!
“I was super psyched to put ‘Supernova Girl’ on my resume,” Frasca said. “Kristian and I just wanted to put something out that would make people happy.”
Mission accomplished.
I loved reading this and still sing "Supernova Girl" at least... once a week?? Every day??