Definitely one of my favourites from the 2014 contest. Mariya Yaremchuk was one of the first entrants to be announced for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. Representing Ukraine she came sixth overall with 113 points. This song is definitely catchy, and it was well received. Mariya Yaremchuk performs in a dark room pouring her heart into the song for the video whilst lanterns cast light and shadow around the room.
Mariya Yaremchuk has been performing in Ukraine contests since 2012. First up was Holos Krainy (translated as The Voice of the Country, the Ukraine's version of The Voice), where she came fourth in the second season. Next, she took part in New Wave 2012, an international contest of young performers. She came third in the contest. Then, she attempted to represent Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with a song called "Imagine". She came fifth in the national selection titled Evrobachennya 2013. A year later she tried again with this song and won the 2016 Ukraine national selection. Since coming sixth in Eurovision 2014, Mariya Yaremchuk has released a few singles under Марія Яремчук, hopefully, there's an album on the way. The song was written by Mariya Yaremchuk and Sandra Bjurman.
The music video is a pure performance piece, showing that Mariya Yaremchuk was meant to be on a stage singing her heart out.
Light effects definitely make this music video, the editors and the light technicians use the lanterns and the shadows to their advantage. Spotlighting the dancers whilst making Mariya Yaremchuk look amazing.
There's not a lot to say about this music video, Mariya Yaremchuk is stunning throughout. She performs with emotion whilst showing off her voice. There's no narrative and not a lot else to comment on. She connects with the audience through her vocals and her performance, igniting and teasing the viewers.
She is back! We've been waiting for her return for ages now and here she is, with a totally different sound, that might just surprise you. I've supported her since Lemonade Mouth and her debut single "Ready Or Not". Yet, I'm not so sure on this song. It's a totally different vibe and sound for her. I totally loved her first album, so this song has to grow on me because it's so different. However, if it's the music she wants to do, I respect that and I'm glad she can do that now. In this video for "Atlantis", Bridgit Mendler hosts a party at her ex's house whilst he's unconscious. Kaiydo also appears for his rap section.
Bridgit Mendler is an ex-Disney star and is definitely following in the footsteps of many great well-known singers and actors. Focusing on her music, she released a debut single that did well, "Ready Or Not" quickly became a favourite and quite the international success. Follow-up single "Hurricane" didn't do so well and neither did her debut album even if it was packed full of tunes! With her new EP on the way in November, this single acts as the first single from the EP. Featured act Kaiydo, real name Keiondre Boone, is a 19-year-old rapper who is definitely getting his name out there, he is perfect on this track, so keep an eye on him! This song was written by Bridgit Mendler, Spencer Bastian, Mischa Chillak and Kaiydo.
Directed by Allie Avital, the video is totally different, much like the song. This is not something we would expect to see from this ex-Disney star, definitely following in the footsteps of some ex-Disney stars.
Mainly a narrative piece, we watch as Bridgit Mendler and her mates break into an ex's house and throw a party, all while her ex is unconscious. She tends to hang around with the unconscious male, so it looks like they're doing things together.
Kaiydo's performance piece is fully energetic, and a total contrast to Bridgit Mendler, who packs in emotion in her visual. I feel like she's experimenting with her sound and her voice, whilst writing songs that have a lot of her heart in. This EP is something new for her, but I expect this is just a side step, giving music to her fans rather than it sitting in the studio doing nothing.
Overall it's an interesting video. It's quite tongue-in-cheek and engaging. Definitely relatable to the song, and it perks up the song a lot more since the song isn't something you would expect from Bridgit Mendler. I'm interested in what the EP will be like, but with vocals like that, I'm sure it'll be amazing.
It's Monday which means it's Chart Mondays, and with James Arthur reigning supreme at the top of the UK singles chart with "Say You Won't Let Go", it opens the Top 10 to my Chart Mondays review. In this case, it leaves me with no choice but to review this music video as I have either reviewed all the other music videos in the UK top 10 singles chart, or they don't have an official music video. Therefore I am reviewing this one which is currently at number two on the chart. The Weeknd kills his previous self and smashes his apartment up before jumping in a car with a cat that transforms into a panther. He is definitely a "Starboy", look what you've done.
The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye, has really come into his own in the past few years. Having done all right when he first hit the music scene, he has definitely built his name and had batted out hits left, right and centre. This one just proves how far he has come, and how much more he has to give. Recently he has changed his hair style, which definitely goes well with this whole new direction. Featured on the track is Daft Punk, an electronic music duo consisting of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. They have been going for years and years and have many hits. Most recently "Get Lucky" brought them back into the public eye and since then they have released hit song after hit song. They'll always be popular. This song has had international success and was written by Abel Tesfaye, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Thomas Bangalter, Martin McKinney and Henry Walter.
Directed by Grant Singer, this video is The Weeknd reinventing himself. With a new album a new sound and this is definitely the start of something new, so why not say goodbye to the previous era and start a whole new one. He has changed his hairstyle, killed his previous self and smashed everything in his apartment that was a part of the previous era.
The narrative is interesting, watching him kill his former self through asphyxiation using a plastic bag; it's definitely surprising. He finds a pink neon cross which he uses to smash the place, before setting alight his wardrobe. It all a part of the previous album, saying goodbye to it.
He next goes to the garage and chooses a car and rides off into the night with a black cat in the passenger seat, which soon transforms into a panther. The entire video says goodbye to his previous album and the music that definitely made him popular.
It's clear The Weeknd likes his cars, his choices in the garage are the Lamborghini Aventador SV Roadster, a Bentley Mulsanne and the McLaren P1. The latter is actually owned by The Weeknd himself, which is the one he chooses to drive away in.
Daft Punk appears only in a portrait of themselves which is hung on the wall. Otherwise, they are nowhere to be seen, which isn't really surprising. This usually is the case when DJs and producers are featured on a track.
Overall, this is a well-planned music video that is fully in-depth. It has a performance and a narrative built in one. The Weeknd pulls both off at the same time perfectly, while also killing his previous self. His performance vibes pour from him, and boy can he put on a show!
Leah McFall made quite the impact on this song, having bided her time for the past few years, she's back now and wow does her voice still astonish us since the first time we heard it. Her voice is amazing and it's surprising she didn't win The Voice UK, but then again neither did Becky Hill and look how far she has got now. Leah McFall will definitely become just as amazing as Becky Hill, mark my words. Leah McFall gives a powerful performance to the viewers in this music video for her most recent single "Wolf Den".
Leah McFall was the runner-up in the second series of The Voice UK. She was mentored by will.i.am who went on to record debut single "Home" with her coach. Unfortunately, the song didn't do so well on the UK chart and she was later dropped by Capitol Records. After years of wondering where she's been, Leah McFall made a comeback with this gorgeous soulful song. Released independently, it's no wonder it didn't chart, but that doesn't mean it was a bad song, it just means that promotion for the single wasn't possible. She stated it was a gift to all who have supported her. Hopefully, an album is on the horizon, as we need a lot more tracks with her amazing voice on.
Directed by Phil Harrison, The clip is a pure performance piece where Leah McFall shines throughout.
She puts her all in performing this piece, and you can see this song is close to her heart. Emotion runs out through her pores of her skin. No one can deny that this song is powerful. It's clear that she was born to sing and born to perform, Leah McFall proves why she should've won The Voice UK series two.
There's not a lot to this music video, no narrative, no storyline; just Leah McFall and this song. Yet she still manages to stun us. Who needs all the theatrics when you have her performance presence and her astonishing vocals?
As you all already know, I'm obsessed with Inna, and I'm excited to announce that I will be going to see her live in Dublin, Ireland for the first time and I literally cannot wait... She released this song and music video recently and I knew I'll end up reviewing it soon. Having already covered it for CelebMix, there's not a lot more I can comment on, although I will certainly make this review more of an opinion piece, like many of my reviews on here. Inna flaunts in this promotional online music video for "Say It With Your Body" and that is definitely what Inna and her love interest are doing.
Inna, real name Elena Apostoleanu, is one of the biggest Romanian female singers in the world. She launched onto the scene with debut single "Hot" which definitely gave her international success, since then she has gone from strength to strength, and this is the latest song from her next album. This follows the amazingly catchy single "Heaven", and both tracks are cut from her fifth studio album. Released under Global Records.
The music video is definitely sexy and sultry, but we expect nothing less from Inna. There is also a love interest, but the male actor is unknown unless someone knows who he is (comment below or message me on Twitter).
In one of the rooms, Inna is in, there is writing on the walls. They are lyrics from her previous album, check out my CelebMix article to find out more.
Inna gets all wet in what seems like shower rooms, whilst her love interest walks around her. She is clearly the central focus and the love interest is more background eye candy.
There's another scene where she's dancing, slightly, to the song in what could be a bedroom. It really looks like it belongs in the "Endless" music video if I'm honest, and although it does relate to the song, it just seems less inviting than the rest of the scenes. It feels out of place; on the other hand, it definitely breaks up the other scenes.
Overall, as a music video, this doesn't quite work, but since it is a promotional online video for a promotional song, we can give it some slack. It's relatable and there is a love interest. Inna is looking gorgeous as always and the song is another grower to add to her collection.
If there are two DJs we want to collaborate again and again it's Kaskade and deadmou5. Yet what makes this collaboration even better is the featured artist Skylar Grey, what more do we want? The last time deadmou5 collaborated with Kaskade, their track "I Remember" charted, could this happen again with this song? It's quite doubtful. Slow song and video, we watch as Skylar Grey emerges from a wrecked car and heads towards a light, but with a twist of an ending, do we really know what happened?
Kaskade, real name Ryan Raddon, was one of the hottest American DJs back in 2008-2009, hitting out amazing songs that even managed to chart around the world. He has gone on to work with some of the biggest stars as he continues to release amazing songs we can't quite get out of our heads. This collaboration with deadmou5 is surely one of them. deadmou5, real name Joel Zimmerman, is a name everyone pretty much knows. He was one of the most influential DJs back in 2008, with his song "Ghosts 'n' Stuff" even managing to hit number 12 on the UK Singles Chart. Various other singles and albums have followed, and he will continue to be one of the biggest DJs around even if he's not a raging chart success. He certainly doesn't need to be. As for Skylar Grey, real name Holly Hafermann; she was originally known as Holly Brook. Her musical career has been up and down with some surprising collaborations and versatile song releases. The track as a whole is hauntingly quirky. one that I could listen to on repeat for sure.
The music video relates to the song well, it's quite a haunting visual to go with the haunting track. It's pretty slow too which is totally in time with the song.
Skylar Grey is in a car crash. The car is upside down, then she comes to, she starts to move and manages to get out of the car. She takes off her heels and heads towards the light. Then a few seconds later the camera returns to the car and her on-screen lover wakes up, rushes to the car and drags a semi-conscious Skylar Grey out of the car. Quite a twist of an ending.
Very slow with not much going on and yet it still manages to confuse. This video would've been perfect for a Halloween release, what with Skylar Grey all bloody and stuff. Guess this is the start of the Halloween music videos.
Overall it's a great interesting visual with an awesome track behind it. Skylar Grey astonishes in this piece, and I can't wait to hear more from her. I'm also happy to see another deadmou5 music video, as it has certainly been too long. This is relatable to the song, but the confusing music video doesn't quite make sense and leaves the viewers to make their own mind up about it.
It's Thursday so it's revisit time, so I picked this one out of Antonia's back catalogue. I definitely prefer her new song "Get Up And Dance"! This comes as a surprise to me as it was released in the UK under 3beat records, which released songs for Inna and Alexandra Stan before focusing their efforts on other artists (and that's me being nice about it). They clearly didn't promote this song because I didn't see this music video whatsoever, which probably explains why the song didn't chart in the UK. Antonia creates an ultimatum for her girlfriend "Morena" in this music video whilst giving a sultry stage performance.
Tom Boxer, real name Cosmin Simionică, is a Romanian DJ who has had a few hit singles namely this one and "Deep In Love". He has released a few more singles here and there, but none has made quite an impact. As for Antonia, full name Antonia Iacobescu, she has continued singing and has released some much better songs, as well as an album. She's going from strength to strength and I can't wait to see what the future brings for her. This song was written by Tom Boxer. It hit number one in Poland and Bulgaria.
There isn't a lot to this music video, focusing solely on the performance side of things rather than anything else. I can't find the original video; this one if from 3beat's YouTube Channel. This record label is known for editing music videos to a 'UK version', they did it plenty of times with Alexandra Stan and Inna, just look at "Get Back (ASAP)"; so I'm guessing this isn't the full video, but it's the only one I can find.
Antonia gives a great sexy performance on stage. Her modelling background really comes to play in this music video. She's in a bar singing to her lover called Morena. She later gets up from her seat and dances around Antonia.
It's not until we near the end of the music video, we realise that it's all a part of a slight narrative. We watch as Antonia storms out of a house and then turns around and talks to Morena. From the words they say, we find out that she caught Morena cheating with a guy, of all people.
Antonia gives Morena an ultimatum and kisses her to help her decide. As she drives away, Morena comes after her and gets in the car. That kiss must have been something so powerful.
Focus on the performance is what makes this video slow and uninteresting, it isn't until the narrative kicks in that it brings the audience back. I'm sure the full video is slightly different and much more engaging, but this one fails to keep the audience attention. The video slightly redeems itself at the end, hence my rating.
Back to my Eurovision Special, I'm so close to finishing off my favourites from Eurovision 2014, before having to launch into my Eurovision 2015 Special. This was Russia's Entrant in the 2014 contest and they came seventh place with 89 points. The performance on the Eurovision stage was memorable because it consisted of a seesaw. The Tolmachevy Sisters received a lot of boos after their performance, but that was mainly because they were representing Russia, and the points and placement proved that the Eurovision Song Contest has nothing to do with politics, otherwise this great sweet song would not have ranked so well. The Tolmachevy Sisters contrast in this video with a black and white filter which gives a classy look for this sweet "Shine" song.
The Tolmachevy Sisters consist of Anastasiya Tolmachevy and Maria Andreyevna Tolmachevy. This isn't the first Eurovision contest they have competed in. They previously represented Russia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006, where they won with their song "Vesenniy Jazz". Eight years later and they represented Russia again in the Eurovision Song Contest and came seventh. They were chosen through internal selection. The girls released an album after they won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006, but since the 2014 Eurovision Contest, they haven't released anything new internationally. This song was written by Philipp Kirkorov, Dimitris Kontopoulous, John Ballard, Ralph Charlie and Gerard James Borg.
This was directed by Aslan Ahmadov. It is a full-on performance piece. Contrast is used effectively in this black and white video, it helps to distinguish who is who, although we're not told ourselves. It feels classy and has an oldness quality to it.
They use the two separate colours, black and white, dramatically. They kind of separate the sisters, which can be both detrimental and helpful.
The girls are relaxed, they clearly love this song and they love to perform it. They scenes they are in adds a quality to the video, but not much else.
The performance is lacking compared to their Grand Final stage performance. It's entertaining to an extent but seems too old-fashioned, there's hardly anything new and current. The video doesn't exactly show the girls personalities, and then there's nothing to relate to the song. A clear narrative would've worked better than a lifeless performance piece. At times the sisters look lost and confused as to what to do, yet they still attempt to perform.
Anyone who keeps an eye on my articles on CelebMix will know how obsessed I am with Alex & Sierra, this song is just perfect as well as the rest of their album which they released this week. I feel I have exhausted every word I can possibly use for Alex & Sierra because they are that good! I'm just glad they chose this song as the first promotional single because this is their audition song for The X Factor (US). Alex & Sierra are "Toxic" to each other in this music video as they hauntingly twist the song and it's meaning into something sexy, sultry and hypnotising.
Alex & Sierra consist of Alex Kinsey and Sierra Deaton. They won the final season of The X Factor (US), which wasn't at all surprising, even though it was a stiff competition that year, they were clearly a favourite. They went on to release an album and a few singles in America but didn't release internationally, and so this album 'As Seen On TV', without the influence of Simon Cowell, is their first release in the UK, and we are loving it! Soulful throughout, flipping songs we all know on their head and making them sound amazing, totally making them their own and fitting them nicely with original songs, it's an album you need in your life. This song is a cover of Britney Spears' "Toxic" and was written by Cathy Dennis, Christian Karlsson, Pontus Winnberg and Henrik Jonback. Alex Kinsey and Sierra Deaton has additional writers Mikal Blue and Johan Lindbrandt in their version. They have totally transformed this song and made it their own.
This music video was originally released on Yahoo Music but later appeared on YouTube. Even without the music, you can literally tell that they've switched the song because of the slow dance and the whole visual. There's a deeper meaning to this Alex & Sierra version and it's so intricate.
The main performance piece is sweet, it's clear these two know how to perform. They would definitely be amazing to see live, they work the song to their advantage and there's such a beautiful chemistry flitting across the air between them as they sing.
There's a slight narrative as they are dancing. Alex & Sierra start off in white clothes, but as they start to dance they leave black handprints on each other's clothes, which soon intensifies like some sort of poison or toxin.
By the end of the video, they are wearing black clothes, signifying that they have transformed into something else and still love each other. This reminds me of a typical relationship where people fight but become stronger because of it. Even though they may be considered bad for one another, they fight through it and become something so much more and better.
What's not to like about this music video? It shocks and outstands us and we can't help but love it. It is toxic in its own right, it infects me and I just end up loving this new version of this song! There are a few times the song lyrics don't match up in time with Alex & Sierra singing, but it's hardly noticeable. There could've been more of a narrative too, but it's still on point throughout.
I do not support James Arthur whatsoever. But it's Chart Mondays, which means I have to review the music video to the number one single in the UK, It just so happens to be James Arthur at the top spot, and he actually has a music video! This makes a change since for the past few weeks the top spot on the UK singles chart hasn't had a music video. Anyhow, here we are and here James Arthur is, so let's get this done. James Arthur sings "Say You Won't Let Go" in a relaxed performance piece whilst we watch relationships and friendships during the narrative side of the video.
James Arthur, winner of The X Factor series nine, he went on to have a few hits before his attitude ruined everything. Twitter was James Arthur's downfall; after a homophobic comment went viral online he made an official apology on The X Factor stage, but it didn't stop there. There were more Twitter spats which soon had Simon Cowell dropping James Arthur from the Syco label, but in a controversial twist, he has once again been picked up by Syco and this song is at the top of the UK charts now. The song was written by James Arthur, Steven Solomon and Neil Ormandy.
Directed by Felix Urbauer, the music video has a narrative and a performance piece. It is completely in black and white.
The narrative is botched in places making it difficult to follow and difficult to understand, there are so many so-called memories throughout, but the overall picture is showing love and friendship. It's definitely sweet and lovely, very relatable to the song which is also upbeat and cute.
The performance side is lacking. James Arthur puts so much emotion into the song, that he doesn't quite show that emotion in the visual aspect of this music video. The song means a lot to him, you can really tell that in his amazing vocals, and yet he isn't giving the audience anything in the music video.
There's nothing else to really comment on. This just doesn't quite accompany the song the way we had hoped. The narrative is all over the place and totally difficult to follow and understand. The performance aspect isn't entertaining enough whatsoever.
