Victoria (Dance Exponents song)

"Victoria" is a song by the New Zealand rock band The Exponents from the band's 1982 album Prayers Be Answered. Released in June 1982 as the band's first single, it reached Number 6 on the New Zealand singles chart. The song was selected by a panel of New Zealand songwriters to have been the #8 top 100 New Zealand songs of all time.

Background

"Victoria" was inspired by Jordan Luck's landlady in Christchurch, with the name Victoria used as a pseudonym. She successfully ran an escort agency but lived with an abusive man: Luck questioned her relationship with the line "What do you see in him?".
The band moved to Auckland before the release of the song. After the single became a success, Luck visited "Victoria" in Christchurch and was happy to find that she not only loved the song but had also split up with her abusive boyfriend.

Music video

A video was funded by the New Zealand Broadcasting Association but, unusually for the time, included a story rather than just a studio performance. Shot in the band's hometown of Christchurch, it shows Luck as "Victoria"'s taxi driver and Al Park, a singer-songwriter sometimes credited as the father figure for the "Lyttelton Sound" and the first person to bring punk music to Christchurch. In 2019, Luck covered Park's "I Walked Away" for the covers collection Better Already - The Songs Of Al Park.

Alternative versions

The recording of "Victoria" on the Prayers Be Answered album differs from the original single. Another version was also included on the 1985 Amplifier album.