With Ed Sheeran totally dominating the UK Singles Chart, with three songs in the top ten at the moment, of which, "Shape of You", is still chilling at the top; ZAYN and Taylor Swift will be my Chart Mondays review today, instead. To me, this is an unlikely pairing, and yet the collaboration is total fire from start to finish. ZAYN and Taylor Swift's voices work totally well together and I sure hope this isn't the last song they collaborate on. This song was done for the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack, although the music video isn't an obvious soundtrack video. Watch ZAYN and Taylor Swift perform this very sultry song in a hotel during this music video for "I Don't Wanna Live Forever".
ZAYN, full name Zayn Malik, is mostly known for being one-fifth of boy group One Direction before he left the band to focus on a solo career in music. He wanted to release music authentic to him, and he's definitely done that. His "PillowTalk" is still one of the most incredible debut singles that people are still talking about and covering today. As for Taylor Swift, she's brought country music to the world, and then made giant leaps into pop music, ones we totally forgive her for because they're amazing songs. She has a new album coming out sometime in the future, and I cannot wait for it to drop. This collaborative effort has had global success, as we expected. It was written by Taylor Swift, Sam Dew, and Jack Antonoff.
Directed by Grant Singer, the music video sees ZAYN step out of a car in the rain and enter a hotel, this is where he starts to sing and where the rest of the music video takes place.
The start of the video shows the problem stars face in their everyday lives. Paparazzi. These people have always been a problem for celebrities, and there are a lot of songs that cover this from Britney to Lady Gaga. Many stars have hit out at how annoyingly ruthless paparazzi are, and there have been several hundreds of music videos showing this. Now it's time for ZAYN to hit back at them.
Performing in their separate hotel rooms, Taylor Swift and ZAYN deliberate on their relationship, getting angry and smashing things up, while also having subtle lost moments. It really shows how powerful each of these stars are. They're meant to perform, they're meant to sing, and here they are doing just that. It's a great music video but it's just missing the wow factor.
We'll all be runnin' away with Rykka. This awesome song can be found on her album, and I'm so glad that it got a brilliant gentle music video to accompany the track. Filmed in Switzerland, the Swiss music video is engaging and interesting, with Rykka giving her all as usual, for this sweet and relaxer of a song. The "Runnin' Away" music video shows Rykka in the best possible limelight, she may not have done well at Eurovision, but we all missed out on the star she is.
Rykka, real name Christina Rieder, first came to my attention at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, where she represented Switzerland with "The Last Of Our Kind". The song was incredibly catchy, but her performance led to her not making the Grand Final. Yet, it gave her international exposure, and looking back at her released songs just proves that Rykka is someone we all should be keeping an eye on. This song was never released as a single, but it is available on her "Beatitudes" album. A music video has been released for it, which led to people thinking it would be the next single. I'm guessing it's a way of saying goodbye to this album; and, hopefully, new music from Rykka is on the way, instead. The song was written by Wayne Livesey, Christina Maria Rieder, and Ryan Carl Dahle.
Directed by Brianne Nord-Stewart, the video accompanies the song perfectly. It's gentle, peaceful, and shows Rykka off in such a positive light. I hope she continues to release music and show to the world she's a superstar, This music video practically proves it.
Filmed in Switzerland, in Lucerne and Meilin, the music video shows Rykka in some amazing profile scenes. The first scene is one of many where Rykka shows her performance vibes and her stunning beauty. The following scenes, Rykka is in a convertible car driving through a forest lined road. Then comes the empty swimming pool dance scene, which is completely on point throughout. Rykka nails the choreography in perfect sync with the dancers and adding a stand-out rhythmic vibe to her performance.
Then as the song switches up for an incredibly sultry verse, Rykka does the exact same in the visual in a very sexy outfit within a barn, she also poses with a lamb. Rykka proves with this music video that she is an allrounder, one we should all be watching, and one we will never forget. Great music to fit with a very catchy relaxer of a song. We're all runnin' away with you Rykka!
We're all chained to the rhythm. Katy Perry is back with this brilliant, dark and raw song that utilises what we all are, in a powerful catchy way. Katy Perry is hitting out these great songs, but they're not instantly catchy like her previous songs were, which probably explains why they're not performing as well. This one has started doing better than "Rise" for many different reasons, but her performance at The Brit Awards and The GRAMMY Awards definitely ignited more downloads and streams. Watch Katy Perry have fun at a futuristic theme park with Skip Marley in the "Chained To The Rhythm" music video.
Katy Perry, real name Katheryn Hudson, has really established herself as one of the main female artists in the world, Forgetting all the shade towards plenty of other well-known singers, she is definitely one who is bringing unstoppable hits and brilliant music videos. Many of her songs are hits and it's surprising she hasn't released a greatest hits album yet, although I'm sure there's one on the cards in the near future. This song is about how we're all attached to social media, how we all comment the same thing about something, and how we're all chained to the rhythm. It's a powerful message, hidden in a very catchy song. It was written by Katy Perry, Max Martin, Sia Furler, Ali Payami, and Skip Marley.
Directed by Matthew Cullen, the music video is set in a futuristic theme park called Oblivia. There are various theme rides at this theme park, including a rollercoaster that has a gap in the tracks, I so want to go on it. There are springing houses, which intrigues me. There's a rocket roller coaster where the cars shoot off into the sky and then fall down. Don't ask me what the weird seat ride is, but it looks like fun. Then there's the hamster wheel.
I totally don't get the hamster wheel, like I want to give it a go, see if I can beat it, but I don't think it would be fun. I think Katy Perry is trying to make us see that we're all hamsters, running around in a wheel, sometimes we fall, sometimes we can't keep up, sometimes we conquer it, but regardless, we're still running around not going anywhere. It's a very in-depth theory that still doesn't make sense to me, but that's what I make of it.
Skip Marley, who is the son of Cedella Marley, and the maternal grandson of Bob Marley, brings some reggae to Katy Perry's track. He comes out of the TV during the outdoor cinema scene, where everyone is dancing the same dance to his part of the song. He brings some fresh performance vibes that really showcases him as an artist, whether he'll have a subsequent hit, is a different story; but this song has actually given him a much-needed spotlight, so we'll be watching to see what he releases next.
Overall, this is a theme park I want to go to! Although, some rides seem way too dangerous, but I think we should presume they passed all the safety checks so they're all good. It looks like a lot of fun, although the petrol station scene doesn't make much sense to me; to be fair, a lot of this music video doesn't make sense, and yet works in a weird and strange way.
I truly believe Era Istrefi is the next big thing. She became popular after "BonBon" dominated the world, but not the charts, and now she's back with a brand new soft dance song that is embedded in my head. It's so good and yet not as clubby as I was expecting. However, I can see the DJs going mad with this and bringing some killer remixes to the table. Era Istefi brings performance vibes like no other, whilst looking extremely sexy in this music video for "Redrum" which features Felix Snow.
Era Istrefi is totally one of these artists that you should be keeping an eye on. From Kosovo, she's absolutely stunning, and she is totally launching her musical career and bringing it. "BonBon" totally gave her worldwide fame, now she just needs to hold on to that and keep going. This follow-up track is a definite step in the right direction, showing her off perfectly as an artist. This song is what I would call soft dance music, you expect something more, but in this subtle form, it works perfectly. I hope some brilliant remixes are on their way with this track. The song has just been released, and I hope it becomes a successful follow-up single. Felix Snow features on the track, he's a DJ and CEO of EFFESS.
Directed by Millicent Hailes, the music video is a full performance visual, with Era Istrefi looking gorgeous throughout and giving it her all.
There's not an awful lot going on, there's a car doing donuts around her, sending out red smoke; there's a mirror where her beauty is reflected; there's red ink dripping off her body, which I suppose to represent blood; and then there's Era Istrefi performing the song.
As a whole, it's a great visual, something interesting to watch and keep the audience entertained, but at the same time, it doesn't give anything new to the viewers. It's a great song, that should do well globally, even though it probably won't get the attention it deserves; but, once again, the music video doesn't bring anything new; however, it's visually interesting.
WARNING: Flashing Images! Thursday revisit time was stressing me out today, as I thought I found it difficult to find a music video that was older than 5 years from one of the artists I had reviewed this week; but, luck was on my side when I came across this one from the Dream Beats. This was the DJ project's first single, in collaboration with Swedish popular but cheesy group, Alcazar. This song surely doesn't disappoint. Alcazar performs with their usual pizazz in this music video for Dream Beats' "Feel 4 U", which also includes a model strutting around her apartment.
Dream Beats is a DJ project from Sweden, formed by Anders Hansson. They first came to my attention when they collaborated with Molly on "Beneath The Lights", such a great song. Then, most recently, I came across Christie & The Dream Beats, with the catchy song "Wasn't My Fault". So, it's nice to visit their debut music video and single, which was with Alcazar. They previously worked together on Alcazar's Melodifestivalen 2009 single "Stay The Night", the song finished fifth overall and the group once again failed to represent Sweden at Eurovision. Alcazar consists of three members who are Andreas Lundstedt, Therese Merkel, and Lina Hedlund. They're the epitome of europop/eurodance, the sort of cheesy pop you expect to get from Europe, and it's worked solidly in their favour for many years. How many groups can say that they've been going for almost 20 years? They've had three international hit singles which are "Crying at the Discoteque", "Sexual Guarantee", and "This Is the World We Live In". They're still going today, although I doubt another international hit is on the horizon, although we never can tell. The song was written by Anders Hansson.
This music video is just difficult to understand and quite testing on anyone who watches it. There's a lot of flashing imagery.
Alcazar performs with their usual energetic vibes. This is exactly what I was expecting from this group. Their performance visual is definitely appealing and that is something you can expect from them at their shows.
There is a narrative of a woman, who isn't wearing many clothes. I honestly don't know what to make of this. I feel like she's broken as if she's been dumped by a guy or something. There's definitely something upsetting her, and that's the only thing that comes to mind, regarding the song. Some might find it sexy to watch, but I don't see what it adds to the music video.
Overall, intricately different, and I was quite expecting some really low-budget music video, so this totally surprised me. It's not the best, granted; but Alcazar brings it like they usually do and that is definitely what makes this music video work.
A bit of an old song, but my iTunes chose this for me, and it's a very catchy song, just wish it had charted and brought Tiffany Gayle some success, as after researching her, this was the only song she released... Technically, if it had been a hit, she would've been a one-hit wonder since she didn't release anything else afterwards; saying that, if it had done well in the charts she'd have had another single released. This is still catchy to this day, and I actually want to dance to it in the clubs I go to... Definitely my next request. Tiffany Gayle asks you to dance with her in the clubs, looking sexy inside but keeping warm outside by layering up and donning some sunglasses in this music video for "Do You Wanna Dance".
Tiffany Gayle was on All Around The World Records, sharing the label with Flip & Fill, Cascada, Kate Ryan, and Danii Minogue. Little is known about her except that she is from Belgium and can speak various languages, at the time she was fluent in three whilst learning more; who knows how many she can speak now. It's a shame her voice has disappeared, but it would be good to see her return to music, even if it were just to display what she can do now. This song didn't chart, despite its various releases around the world.
The music video is really simple, playing on the strength of the opening lyric about being in a club, that is where the video is set. A great and relatable setting.
What's shocking is that we all thought it was on-trend to wear sunglasses and look like she does outside, back in 2008. Although she nails the club look inside, whoever turned her down to dance was totally making a mistake.
This song is the sort of song to get everyone up and dance, to be fair this is the sort of thing I do. I'm usually the first on the dancefloor and the last one to get off. I'm usually great at getting everyone onto the dancefloor, which is exactly what this song is about, hence why I loved it as soon as my iTunes randomly played it. It's just a shame I didn't know about the song until today.
What's more, there is a choreography part, where Tiffany Gayle dances in the street with some backing dancers. What I actually can't believe is that the slut drop is included, and she fully nailed it too. You go girl! She pulls it off perfectly, even if the choreography isn't amazing, it will do.
Overall, it's a great, packaged music video; totally relatable to the song and adds everything we could want. It is slightly low-budget, and not all that appealing. There's not an awful lot going on, and more of a narrative would've made it much better. Regardless, this is something I would watch again and again because this song is a tune and the video could be a hell of a lot worse, but it's not.
I had this song stuck in my head last night due to the fact that I was thinking about my last night out, which was Friday, and I remember dancing away on the small stage to this amazingly catchy song, not having a clue who sung it. I googled it last night and to my amazement, it's Meghan Trainor. This is the music video that she took down due to photoshopped results; one I didn't watch because it never became a hit. How? I have no idea. Watch Meghan Trainor work it in her music video for "Me Too" because, of course, we all want to be her.
Meghan Trainor kickstarted her career when she debuted with "All About That Bass" which was a complete international sensation; her follow-up singles and debut album followed suit and she quickly became one of the top female singers; now it's slowly going downhill. This may be due to the lack of promotion of her latest singles; although her album did do well globally. This song was written by Meghan Trainor, Eric Frederic, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Jason Desrouleaux (Jason Derülo), and Peter Svensson.
Directed by Hannah Lux Davis, this is mainly a performance-based music video with a lifestyle narrative infused within. The music video gained controversy when it was first released as an unapproved video was released before quickly being taken down and a new one uploaded the day after. The reason behind this was an image manipulation that made Meghan Trainor's waist much slimmer than what it is. So kudos to her deleting the video and putting the unedited video up since she is encouraging the world to be confident with who they are.
The music video totally represents the confident life, we all have it now and again, we just need to have it inside of us all the time. Meghan Trainor is fierce throughout, from strutting around when she wakes up in the morning to totally pulling off that unappealing giraffe onesie.
To look good, you have to have the confidence to wear whatever you want to wear. People work the clothes they wear because they strut their stuff in it, even if it doesn't suit whatsoever.
She arrives on set and tries on various costumes before deciding on the blue sequin dress. She then goes all out in a choreography number with backing dancers. Totally nailing her performance throughout. If anything, Meghan Trainor is someone we all need to see live. She totally brings it for this music video, I would've just liked a little bit more of a relatable narrative, though.
It's Chart Mondays today, and anyone who has been following my blog these past two days will know that I've batted out seven catch-up blogs to get to this point, so I am totally feeling proud of myself right now. Ed Sheeran is still at number one with "Shape of You", and so, once again, it opens the top ten to my Chart Mondays review. It looks like The Chainsmokers may drop out of the chart next week so hence why I chose this song and music video to review. Both narrative and performance, watch a house fly up into the sky before our main character, Martha Hunt, jumps out and falls to Earth, in The Chainsmokers' "Paris" music video.
The Chainsmokers are a duo consisting of Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall. They have seriously proven themselves within the music industry, even though their musical style has changed a lot since they first came out back in 2014. Their progression has been phenomenal and just showcases their diversity and their ability to release hit after hit after hit. This song features uncredited vocals from Emily Warren. It was written by Andrew Taggart, Kristoffer Eriksson, and Fredrik Häggstam.
This music video was directed by Mister Whitmore and stars model and actress Martha Hunt. In the description of the music video, the duo explains what Paris is. '1: a sentimental yearning for a reality that isn't genuine. 2: an irrevocable condition for fantasy that evokes nostalgia of day dreams'. In this case, this music video and song has nothing to do with the French capital Paris.
Which is why the music video isn't set in Paris. We watch a house rise up high into the sky, whilst The Chainsmokers just look on as Andrew Taggart sings along to the song.
Inside the floating house is Martha Hunt, who looks out the window in bewilderment before sitting on the edge; pushes herself over and freefalls. We watch as she falls down and down, I kind of expected Andrew Taggart to run and try and catch her; but instead, she just keeps falling; until the end where she floats down into bed. If that happened to me, I'd be doing it over and over again, looks like fun.
Overall, the video works well, The Chainsmokers doesn't really give it their all during the performance side of the music video; however, there is a complete focus on Martha Hunt, who acts her character out perfectly. I guess she makes up for The Chainsmokers' lack of enthusiasm in this music video.
After writing up an article about her new music video on CelebMix, I had to include this on my blog too. It's a complete stunner of a music video, that definitely proves that Sofia Carson is the next big thing to come from the Disney Channel. You may recognise her from Descendants where she plays Evie, or from Adventures In Babysitting where she plays Lola Perez, or maybe the A Cinderella Story: If The Shoe Fits where she plays Tessa/Bella. Either way, she is totally bringing it when it comes to music. In this music video, Sofia Carson pulls on everyone's heartstrings for this music video. She proves this is where she needs to be and how much of an amazing performer she is in "Back To Beautiful".
Sofia Carson first came to my attention after she brilliantly nailed the role of Evie in the Disney film Descendants. She will be reprising her role in the sequel film, which is expected to come out summer 2017. She has been dipping in and out of acting and music for quite a while, having released her own version of "Rotten To The Core", whilst releasing original songs "Love Is The Name" and "I'm Gonna Love You", the latter of which was a promotional single. She is planning on releasing a debut album sometime soon, so I'm excited to see what other tracks will be on that said album. The Alan Walker remix was chosen as the official single, over the Stargate remix, which is why Alan Walker has become the featured artist. He has really come into his own as a DJ, after his internationally successful "Faded". He's definitely a DJ that will go far in the music industry. This song was written by Alan Walker, Julia Michaels, and Justin Tranter.
Directed by Emil Nava, this music video is quite haunting during the verses before an unexpected dance sequence hits off beautifully; lighting up the entire place.
It has a Disney feel to the music video, what with the long staircase and the table. Let's not forget the mirror as well, which is a great link to Evie in Descendants, since her mother is the Evil Queen from Snow White. Regardless, Sofia Carson brings it once again for this music video.
She's got a perfect performance vibes leaching out of her and being received perfectly by the viewers. Sofia Carson is one hell of a performer, connecting completely with the song and portraying it honestly on the screen. I love the stage scene, which is where she belongs, although I would've loved to have been in one of the seats; an exclusive performance just for me.
Overall, this music video is a brilliant portrayal of the song, and we are all going back to beautiful because we deserve to. It's a great inspirational meaning behind the song, especially considering her target audience, and she totally nails it throughout. Shame there isn't a full narrative, but we can't have everything.
A fellow CelebMix writer sent me this video on Facebook the other night, telling me how catchy the song is and how much I need to listen to it. He was completely right, hence why it's appearing on my blog today. It is surely a catchy number that easily gets stuck in my head, just like many others. Watch Christie from Christie & The Dream Beats parade around with angel wings whilst giving an emotional performance in this "Wasn't My Fault" music video.
This is a new collaboration, originally it was The Dream Beats which is Anders Hansson's dance pop project. I thought I heard the name before but wasn't sure where until I was researching the previous releases and found out that The Dream Beats once collaborated with Molly on the awesome song "Beneath The Lights". Now with a full-on permanent singer, called Christie, full name Christie Prentice; it's time for this project to go all out and bring it this year. 2017 might just be their year. The song is highly memorable and will probably have you singing along by the end of it.
The music video is shot in black and white, with intricate colourful transitions throughout, that does keep the audience attention regardless of the filter.
There's not an awful lot going on in this music video. Christie gives it her best shot at performing the song with her all, but it's just not good enough. Her wings are much more interesting than the music video as a whole.
This is a simple case of an amazingly catchy song, with an uninteresting accompanying music video. Regardless, Christie is looking beautiful throughout and is working the camera the best way she can. It's just a shame this isn't exactly a great relatable music video.
