Okay, how have I never reviewed an *NSYNC music video on my blog before today? It sounds impossible to have this happen, and yet here we are. This song has been stuck in my head all day, probably because I've recently caught up with Celebrity Karaoke Club (which is a lot trashier than I thought it was going to be, but it's addictive trash), and this was one of the ending songs as they said goodbye to another contestant, and it made me realise how much I loved this track in the '90s. To be fair, it's still a brilliant song today and I could so see it resurfacing as a viral hit over the next few years.
*NSYNC were a '90s/'00s pop boy band consisting of Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone, and Lance Bass. They had a number of hit singles but I never really caught on to the group and preferred UK boy bands such as 5ive and A1, at the time. This song is strong and powerful with the group giving it throughout and easily making it catchy. This is truly an unforgettable track with Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez impressing vocally. The song was originally given to 5ive, who rejected it, clearly, they missed out because it became a brilliant hit for *NSYNC.
The music video, directed by Wayne Isham, is totally iconic and one we all remember. It opens with all five members being string puppets, controlled by a woman, who is the former model and actress, Kim Smith. She cuts the strings of Chris Kirkpatrick and Joey Fatone first and they fly through the air and onto a speeding train where they run away and try to evade the woman, who gives chase. She next cuts the strings of Justin Timberlake and chases after him in an abandoned warehouse with a pair of dogs, but he manages to escape too. Lastly, she cuts the strings of JC Chasez and Lance Bass who land in a red Dodge Viper and they speed away as Kim Smith gives chase in her silver BMW Z3. They end up sliding into a u-turn to escape from her, which totally works. Throughout the video, there's a performance visual where the group are performing in a blue rotating box, which is made to look like they're on changing gravity fields. During this performance piece, they give us brilliant dance choreography and passion for the song. This is totally one of the best music videos released in the '90s/'00s.
Why do two of my all-time favourite artists release new music on the same day? Like, I love it because it's new music from both INNA (who has collaborated with Michael Calfan on the track "Call Me Now") and Alexandra Stan (who features on this song "Bandit" by Paul Damixie) but it causes me to have to choose which new release to cover - or it normally would, in this case, luckily, INNA hasn't dropped a music video for her new song and so Alexandra Stan has to be my new release music video review this week and I am loving it. This song effortlessly gets stuck in my head, to the extent where I just have the chorus going around and around, eager for me to listen to the song on repeat. It's a really fun song with Paul Damixie giving us some brilliant instrumental sounds throughout the track whilst Alexandra Stan brings the vocals and her care-free spirit as she sings.
The music video has been directed by SAN and has a cowboy-theme throughout with both artists appearing in a wild wild west village. Alexandra Stan appears in most of the scenes, giving us a performance piece where she's wearing a hat that has string hanging down all around it, which clearly gets in the way and she's always messing with it. There's also a performance with a cactus where she's watering it and herself with a hose, and then there are also scenes where she's inside a bar, performing on the tabletop wearing cow chaps. Paul Damixie can be seen walking around dressed as a cowboy throughout. It really has a bandit air to the video with the cowboy theme, but I feel it's missing connection and substance.
This has got to be one of the best music videos that Antonia has ever released. I discovered it when I was creating a CelebMix article titled 5 of Antonia's Best Music Videos and I couldn't help but crown "Hurricane" as the best one. I do wish that the track had become an international success just so that the music video could've been shown on music channels all around the globe because it really is so amazing and it's shocking that there are only 6 million YouTube views, I mean, that's still a lot but this so deserves a tonne more. The song reminds people of Eminem and Rihanna's song "Love The Way You Lie", and whilst I agree with them on the meaning behind the songs, Antonia's vocals are completely off the chart filling the track with so much heart and passion throughout. Puya's rapping switches the track up adding more Eastern-European vibes to the track whilst also making it truly Romanian. The lyrics of the song paints a story of a love that has its ups and its downs, but one she would fight for, for every single day - I need someone who would fight for me!
I've already stated that I think this is one incredible music video but I'm willing to say this again and again. I could literally watch this on repeat, over and over. It's both a narrative and a performance piece with Antonia completely selling it from the get-go. We start off with a scene where Antonia is dressed impeccably in a black dress as she walks down the corridor away from her on-screen love-interest who has clearly done something wrong. We flash through performance scenes, which we continually see throughout the visual of both Antonia and Puya who are giving it their all, you can see in their eyes that they mean every single word they are singing. The narrative continues with a flashback of Antonia meeting her love interest for the first time as they both work at a cute small bar where she's a waitress and he's a barman. During this scene, when the chorus kicks in, Antonia jumps up onto the stage and sings her part of the song, to which the audience applauds her.
The story continues in which they move up in the world and go into the business side of things. He has his own office, and Antonia looks amazing as she struts around promoting Avon - she's even on the cover of his assistant's Avon book. Antonia returns to his office, only to see the said assistant with her hands all over him. Let's be real, Antonia isn't someone you want to get on the wrong side of, and her face in that exact moment, says it all. She ends up forgiving him, until their fancy dinner comes along, in which she's already got her doubts about him and then, on top of that, he gets a message from another woman saying that she misses him. Well, Antonia flips, and rightly so, shoving him and throwing a glass of wine over him - you go, girl! She returns to the bar that she once worked at and takes a seat, he later follows hoping to make it up to her, she goes to sing on the stage and the ending scene sees them hugging. Their love is clearly so strong and forgiving is never easy. It's great to see the representation of a real relationship in this visual. There's so much going on, so much detail, which makes me want to watch this again and again. Definitely one of Antonia's best music videos to-date.
Another music video I haven't seen before today, from one of my favourite girl groups. I'm literally blaming YouTube for all the reasons why I'm missing these music videos, as they no longer send emails when a channel you're subscribed to releases a new video - I get it because my email is full of YouTube emails, so I do understand it from that perspective, but on the other hand, I am missing all these music videos that I want to watch upon the day of release, not weeks and weeks down the line. This one is another great performance piece from Little Mix and I've recently been watching their TV talent show Little Mix The Search where they are searching for people to form a band which will go out on tour with them as their support act; this song has been played a couple of times in the background of the show and it is so addictively catchy. It's a very sweet pop track about being in love and how that feels like a holiday.
The music video is a pure performance visual that was filmed during the pandemic and as with all the music videos that are being filmed during this time, there are restrictions, limitations, and plenty of difficulties, which explains why this music video is slightly disappointing considering their previous visuals, yet it can totally be forgiven due to filming during these tough times. Little Mix still manages to bring it, with all things considered, giving sexiness, dance, and fierceness. Throughout the video, they are depicted as mermaids and goddesses. It's an iconic video with some brilliantly edited scenes that transports them into such a magical world, but it's just missing the Little Mix fire that they deliver in all their other music videos.
How have I not seen this yet? Since it was released a few weeks ago, I thought I'd write up about it today. I'm shocked this hasn't been a global hit - certainly, it's charted in many different countries, but in the UK it only reached number 42, to date, with the US Billboard it's peaked at number 36, and in Australia it's peaked at 47. It's done well in Belgium, New Zealand, and Japan. There is plenty of time for it to work it's way up the charts around the world, but I am shocked it hasn't instantly become a worldwide success, especially since Marshmello & Demi Lovato have a tonne of fans collectively. The song is so amazing too, spreading positivity throughout the world when we totally need it most, especially since a lot of people aren't OK what with the pandemic affecting everything from jobs, relationships, friendships, family, life, enjoyment, and a hundred different other things too. Demi Lovato's vocals are on fire from start to finish, whilst Marshmello totally impresses with the production, this was a brilliant team-up!
Directed by Hannah Lux Davis, the music video sees the two stars go back in time to their childhood bedrooms. They awake in their old beds and there's a tonne of nostalgic themes shown throughout. We watch them take time to address their younger selves and start to see the kid they once were again. I love how they interact with their younger selves and just end up partying in the street together. Don't we all wish we could just do that, like right now? It's a great video, I just wanted a bit more from it. The artists have teamed up with Hope For The Day which is a non-profit movement opening the conversation of proactive suicide prevention and mental health education.
Still at number one in the UK is 24kGoldn with "Mood" which features iann dior and so I have decided to review Justin Bieber's most-recent single and music video, titled "Holy" featuring Chance The Rapper as it is sitting at number 10 and has been for two weeks in a row. I'll be surprised if this doesn't climb higher next week, but there's also been a tonne of new releases this week and so the chart could see some interesting changes come Friday. "Holy" is one of Justin Bieber's songs that will go down in history as it's just so honest and he delivers it so personally that it's hard not to like it because his voice is just in tune with the lyrics of the song that you feel every word. Chance The Rapper brings it for his verse, impressing vocally and attuning to the track easily. I'm shocked this has only peaked at number 10 here in the UK, but here's hoping it climbs as it deserves to chart higher.
The music video is so good and relatable to a whole lot of people right now since many have lost their jobs - me included - and many are struggling with paying bills and rent and having difficulty with landlords, and it's so inspiring to see Justin Bieber showing these tough times in his music video, which has been directed by Colin Tilley. It stars both artists with Ryan Destiny (best known for being in Lee Daniel's Star TV series) and Wilmer Valderrama (best known for being in That 70's Show, From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, and NCIS). We follow Justin Bieber as he works as an oil worker, a story is painted as he has a good home-life and an okay working life, and Ryan Destiny has a good working life too, until the pandemic hits and he loses his job, she loses a patient in her care home that she's grieving for, and then they lose their home and they end up walking the streets until Wilmer Valderrama, who has just returned from being in the armed forces, sees them on the sidewalk and offers to take them back to his home where a meal will be waiting for them. It's such a great music video that showcases that there are good people in the world, that there will be light at the end of the tunnel, and that good things happen even if you are at rock bottom. People need a music video like this, and it certainly helped me too as I feel like I'm at rock bottom right now - but I know so many other people are worse off than me. Chance The Rapper's part in the visual is purely performance-based and doesn't add much to the story but it's great to see him give his part his all.
Last week, I watched the Outsiders' music video for "Keep This Fire Burning" which featured Amanda Wilson and one of the dancers looked a lot like Ian Somerhalder - although I still doubt it would be him, so I decided to see if he had actually starred in any music videos, and this one came up, from non-other than Eurovision 2008 winner Дима Билан (also known as Dima Bilan) with his song "Слепая любовь" which means "Blind Love" in English. This was released in 2011 when The Vampire Diaries were in season 2/3 so Ian Somerhalder had totally established himself as Damon Salvator. I've tried to find out how this happened but I can't find any good sources apart from rumours that they are good friends. The song is so strong with Dima Bilan giving it his all. I'm disappointed that Yuliya Krylova isn't credited as a vocalist in the song nor in the music video, she should've at least got a feature credit on the song. "Слепая любовь" is a catchy track all about being consumed by blind love and desire, it's such a hot track if my English translation of the lyrics are correct.
And so, it's no surprise that the music video, directed by Vladislav Opelyants, is just as hot as the song itself. I was hoping for some sort of twist but it didn't really happen, we just see Dima Bilan and Ian Somerhalder make eyes at one another as the latter is arm in arm with a woman at a party, but Dima Bilan wants the girl and so they end up in a fight which is intercut with two different sex scenes but we never know who wins. It certainly has a vibe of The Vampire Diaries running throughout and it was certainly the inspiration behind the visual, especially since Damon Salvator and Stefan Salvator fight over Elena Gilbert throughout the series. I just so wanted some sort of twist at the end, something that doesn't make it the typical story of two men fighting over a woman.
This new single from Antonia, along with the music video, titled "Rebound", was dropped last week, on Friday. It would've made a perfect New Release music video blog article but it didn't get released until after I had written about fellow Global Records track "Matado" by Gino Manzotti & MAXX; and so, I've had to wait a week to review this on my blog, but that didn't stop me writing about it for CelebMix. I fully love this song from Antonia to the extent where I would say that it's one of my favourite releases of the entire year. "Rebound" just speaks to me in so many ways, especially after my break-up a few months ago and now that I'm single. In the past, rebounding has been my go-to and I've not been able to do such a thing this time around because I haven't been clubbing due to the pandemic, so I've had to tackle my feelings head-on and learn to love myself for me. Antonia delivers this track perfectly showing off her vocals, her connection with the song, her honest portrayal of the lyrics, and the emotional side to the track. This track deserves worldwide success but will probably just be another awesome track that her fans will treasure.
The music video, directed by Bogdan Paun of NGM Creative with Alexandru Muresan acting as director of photography, captures the pure essence of the song. Antonia acts brilliantly moody feeling lost without the one she loves, the one she misses, and she's regretful that she had to have a rebound to make her realise this. Most of the scenes are set in a bar - the typical place where someone may find a rebound - where she's drinking shots and performing to the camera. Other scenes sees her inside and outside a warehouse, really capturing the emotion of the song on her face which we can easily feel as we watch the video clip. I'm sad that there's no love-interest to add to the narrative of the music video, but there is a sponsor of Kreskova Vodka. Overall, another brilliant music video from the NGM Creative team, with Antonia giving it her all!
Today, a tonne of new releases have been dropped with plenty of them coming from my favourite artists that I really was spoiled for choice on which music video to review for my New Release blog. I went with Becky Hill's new single "Space" because I've supported her since day one (when she appeared on The Voice UK) and she just keeps on releasing anthems after anthems! She's such an incredible singer and I felt extremely lucky that I managed to see her live at the start of 2019, for my birthday, and I hope I get the chance to see her perform on stage again - I'm sure I will. "Space" is an epic song that really showcases Becky Hill's incredible vocals. The lyrics paint a story of a broken relationship where outside troubles are infecting the love they have for one another and tainting it, to the extent where space apart may just be what they need. This hit me right in the heart, especially after going through my break-up a couple of months ago. This is the second time that Becky Hill has dropped a song that speaks to me at my very core at that very moment. She's a powerhouse of a vocalist and "Space" allows her to prove that to the world. This is one incredible and fierce track, that needs to become a chart hit to allow Becky Hill to get the recognition she deserves.
What can I say about this music video? Well, it's probably one of the best music videos I have seen all year! Relating brilliantly with the song, Becky Hill shines throughout with her love-interest acting brilliantly too. The narrative side of the visual is conceptually simple but that is all that is needed because everything else is what makes it superb. I love the editing techniques throughout, from the crazy stairs to the stretching table, all of which adds to the space idea. Then there are the performance visuals which Becky Hill knocks out of the park. Her voice is on-point throughout, she looks absolutely stunning in that flame-orange dress; and, when her hair is up, it really exposes her beautiful face, whilst when she has her hair down we can just feel the power within the visual as she holds her notes. I am blown away with this incredible music video, and it's surely one I'm going to watch again and again.
Let's keep the Amanda Wilson videos coming since it's time for my Thursday Revisit review. I fully remember this dance song although I'm shocked it only made it to number 80 in the UK, with Robyn's original doing better in other countries and Beverly Knight covering it to chart success in the UK, both back in the '00s before Outsiders and Amanda Wilson came along with this awesome version. I swear I've heard this song played in the clubs in the last few years, although not very often nowadays. Dance music usually is linked to fitness one way or the other and so that also explains the fitness video for the track. The song is total fire, with Amanda Wilson impressing again with her awesome vocals. The lyrics are full of fighting spirit for a relationship - which I totally get as my past relationships makes me understand that I fall deeply and would do anything for the person I'm with, so this song totally speaks to me, I know I just need someone who would do the same for me.
The accompanying music video isn't very engaging for the viewers, even if the song does inspire fitness. I hate that they used the dancers to lip-sync to the song rather than Amanda Wilson herself, she's beyond underrated, and her voice is completely amazing on this track and her other releases - which I'm still listening to on my Apple Music. She's featured on a whole lot of songs that are all worth listening to, and I seriously cannot wait for new music from her. As for this video, it's easily forgettable and there's not much substance to it at all. Also, one of the male dancers looks a lot like Ian Somerhalder, although it is unlikely to be him
