videoMETTE 'Small World' by Jan Luca Hellwich
METTE creates sparks during another mesmerising dance performance, directed by YDA award winner Jan Luca Hellwich.
Promonews - 6 days ago
Videos
videoLeon Bridges 'Talk It Over' by D+Y
D+Y - that's David and Yasmin - co-direct a vibrant choreography-based video for the returning Leon Bridges.Opening outside a warehouse with dancers already in the flow, the video for Talk It Over is a feat of movement and cinematography, exuding an absolutely joyous vibe throughout.The film sees Bridges surrounded by an eclectic cast of dancers whose individual styles and personalities gradually animate the space. Inspired by the track's nod to the West Indies we move between intimate exchanges, playful choreography and ensemble sequences. D+Y use the openness of the setting to create striking compositions, weaving performers and camera together through fluid movement and carefully constructed blocking.As dancers and choreographers themselves, movement is integral to D+Y’s filmmaking. Working with choreographer Luciano Hiwat and Plue Agency, the duo brought together talent from the local dance community, allowing each performer’s individuality and freedom of movement to become part of the film’s visual language.“It was a pleasure working with Leon and the team on this promo," comment D+Y. "As a dancer and director duo, we’re always chasing a visual language carried by movement in a fun and innovative way. We love that this song gave us an authentic opportunity to bring together exactly what we seek and love: dance and cinema."Our approach was to use movement that felt seamless and effortless, with tons of charisma and personality. We built the choreography around visually fun compositions and seamless blocking, working together with the camera movements. The dancers are integrated into the location as people who would naturally go to a dancehall to move freely, while also depicting the themes of the track.”Nisha Mullea, EP at Caviar adds: “D+Y are that perfect combination of raw talent and a dedicated work ethic. They’re such an important part of CAVIAR London’s roster, and this promo is a real showcase of their skills put into practice."We’re incredibly proud to be nurturing D+Y on their journey as directors and, with CAVIAR’s own PatchWadsworth producing, we managed to pull the whole thing together in just five days. Their strong connections to the dance community also meant we could bring together some amazing talent, we’re hugely grateful to everyone who jumped in and made it happen.‘Talk It Over’ is a standout track and Saul [Levitz] and the team gave us the creative freedom to really do the song justice. Working with Leon was an absolute joy from start to finish. This promo is a brilliant example of talented young creatives all pulling together to make something epic, with very little time and money. We couldn’t be happier with the final result.”
Rob Ulitski - 7 days ago
videoNatanya 'Play With A Kiss' by Tally Francis
Natanya and her date go to a drive-in movie - where Natanya is also the star on the silver screen - in Tally Francis's video. The slick visual for the rising Brit R&B singer's Play With A Kiss includes an interlude, when the movie breaks down and the announcer (the voice of PinkPantheress, no less) tells the couple to leave the field - in their convertible with Natanya's personalised number plate.A fun video for the singer-songwriter and producer bringing back a classy, old school R&B style - and on the verge of big things.
Promonews - 25 days ago
videoMychelle 'Sunday Afternoon' by Flora Scott
Flora Scott's latest video for soul singer Mychelle takes us into the world of a young couple in a state of blissful happiness, then adds an element of uncertainty to reflect the theme of the song.In the video for Sunday Afternoon, Scott uses different formats to convey how the couple are seen - both though the main narrative lens, and then by using their own cameras to capture each other. And ultimately its through the camera itself that things become more complicated and ambiguous - when the director presses 'rewind'."Mychelle beautifully muses over the feeling of not being ready for love in Sunday Afternoon," says Flora Scott. "My response was to create this perfect day with this loved-up couple - but with a twist at the end. Something to reflect this bittersweet sentiment."
Promonews - 1 month ago
videoKelela ft PinkPantheress 'The Bridge' by Yasser Abubeker
Yasser Abubeker invites us into an ultra-cool nighttime world of sleek seduction for Kelela's steamy team-up with PinkPantheress.The video for The Bridge, is Abubeker's study in restraint and proximity with the two artists moving through the same space, held apart by it, and gradually pulled together. Meanwhile other couples, situated around a moody, depopulated darkening urban space are also being drawn towards each other. Set within a dimly-lit apartment, the video opens with Kelela and PinkPantheress in separate rooms, each carrying the same unspoken tension. The architecture does the work of keeping them apart, but as the track builds, that separation begins to dissolve. Movement takes over, spreading rhythmically between the two artists and the surrounding cast until the space between them collapses entirely.Yasser builds the film around a shared physical language, sustaining an erotic charge throughout, via the cinematography of Diara Sow and choreography by Mesh Henry. A gesture that begins in one room and concludes in another, bodies echoing one another across locations — so that the film feels physically interconnected long before its subjects ever meet. The visual leans into a cool, restrained palette of deep blacks, washed-out greens, and muted cyans, using directional light to carve pockets of illumination from the shadows and to separate figures within a single frame. Production design by Ranya El-Refaey grounds the world in the transitional, intimate spaces where the song lives. In the final section, Kelela and PinkPantheress occupy the same space for the first time. Their movement becomes mirrored and responsive as the camera circles them in a continuous orbit, tightening the frame as proximity increases — composure and yearning finally resolving into contact.Absorbing, beautiful and very cool indeed.
Promonews - 2 months ago
videoTeddy Swims 'Break Up In Reverse' by Lewis Cater
Lewis Cater imagines putting Teddy Swims's life back together with a powerful concept to accompany the singer's heartfelt ballad.At the start of the video for Break Up In Reverse, Teddy is standing in front of a pile of rubble - a house, containing the common objects of a family home, completely destroyed. But then a bulldozer appears, approaching the rubble, and the process of un-demolishing the house begins. Debris lifts, walls rise and meaningful objects, baby toys, and kintsugi pottery fall back into place. This happens in stages, so as one part of the house emerges, Teddy appears there and performs the next part of the song. Eventually the house is complete again, and the singer sits there, having at least the place who has his heart, if not the person.As a metaphor for heartbreak, Lewis Cater's video hits home. Attention-grabbing and engaging in its execution, the shooting the demolition of a house and reversing that process in the video is well planned to incorporate Teddy Swims's emotional performance. Most importantly, its relatable; the concept captures the impossible desire to go back, to rewind emotional damage.
Promonews - 2 months ago
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The Promonews Roundup
videoSekou 'Does She Know' by Iggy London
Iggy London directs a suitably glamorous, Soul Train-influenced visual for Sekou's latest retro-soul banger. The vibrant video for Does She Know recreates a Seventies variety show environment, complete with shimmery styling, a glittering discoball and an impassioned live audience. Ideal for a song that evokes that period through its lyrics, production and the singer's performance.And Sekou is effortlessly cool and charismatic, throwing shapes and thriving in the spotlight, in his latest video with Iggy London - a collab that began auspiciously last year with the video for Catching Bodies.Most crucially, its a great showcase for Sekou's surprisingly deep yet deeply soulful voice. So it's further evidence that he is a leading contender among rising British artists to go stellar in the next year or so.
Rob Ulitski - 2 months ago
videoKwn 'Risk It All' by Sophie Jones
Sophie Jones directs a playful homage to Y2K R&B videos, in her promo for East London R&B artist and producer Kwn. The video for Risk It All follows the artist from the backseat of a limo through to the club packed with her friends, captured in a hyperstylised way. Leaning into zooms, push-ins, pull-outs, and transitions that hit the beat, the whole visual feels fresh and authored, and perfectly captures the vibe of the track. Great work.
Rob Ulitski - 2 months ago
videoKILIMANJARO ft Rahh 'Stumble' by Sekou Abineri
Sekou Abineri directs an atmospheric promo for Zambian-Scottish DJ and producer KILIMANJARO, featuring vocalist Rahh and the Thanda Choir. The video for Stumble boasts a fervent, gospel-like quality, anchored by confident performances from the artists. In the studio setting where the choir are statuesque figures surrounding the central partnership of KILIMANJARO and Raah, the video picks up on the light and dark within the track.The message of the song is inspirational: it's not the stumble, it's what you do afterwards that really counts. And that has inspired an emotive and cinematic video.
Rob Ulitski - 2 months ago
videoElmiene x Fujii Kaze 'Comet + Gold' by Patrick Linehan
British-Sudanese soul singer Elmiene shares the stage with Japanese superstar Fujii Kaze in Patrick Linehan's video for their collaboration on the sweetly soulful Comets + Gold.Linehan's film focusses on the artists' performance in a stripped-back setting, so Elmiene and Fujii Kaze are placed within an ethereal void illuminated by a warm golden glow.The restrained creative approach allows the emotional depth of the track to remain front and centre, transforming the video into a visual extension of the music rather than a literal interpretation of its narrative. Through subtle lighting, composition and movement, the film captures the feeling of searching for answers in the aftermath of a relationship that disappeared without explanation.
Promonews - 2 months ago
videoMNEK 'REVERSE!!' by Douglas Reddan
Douglas Reddan directs a dazzling comeback promo for pop star and producer MNEK. The video for Reverse!! - his first new music in seven years - finds the artist walking alone in a multi-storey parking garage, when a couple of 'thugs' decide to start a fight. Before we know it, the toxic masculinity dissolves into flamboyant choregraphy, impassioned performance and strobe-lit slow-mo. It's a powerful, unabashed visual that celebrates not only MNEK and his new music era, but the LGBT+ community as a whole. It's a spectacular comeback from one of the UK's brightest stars - and more standout work from Douglas Reddan and his team.
Rob Ulitski - 2 months ago
videoCikho 'Fell Again' by Original Concrete Club
Building a reputation for creating vibrant visuals for a new generation of musicians, young North London directing collective Original Concrete Club have now tapped into the potential of old-school cutout animation with their second video for rising South London pop-R&B artist Cikho.We join Cikho at a bus stop on a grey day, donning his headphones to play the soulful groove of his track Fell Again and losing himself in another dimension. It's a retro-fuelled, cartoonish version of reality, a mix of cutout animated live action and other elements, where Cikho and his buddy are out to impress a quartet of fun-loving local girls.The young members of OCC have been honing their craft in the couple of years, making videos for Harlen Jackson, Ives Missing and several more newcomer artists. They reveal that they were fascinated by the potential of the cutout animation aesthetic - but perhaps less prepared for the several weeks of work that this required."Coming off the back of our previous video with Cikho for Deja Vu, we knew the next video had to push the world around Cikho even further," say OCC. "The idea was built on Cikho putting on a pair of headphones and dropping into a more colourful, surreal version of reality. It felt like a natural way to visualise that feeling of getting lost in music."Originally, we only planned to use scanned paper textures and ripped edges for the backgrounds. But once we saw how good they looked, we committed to building the entire video around that aesthetic. "That decision ended up taking over 350 hours. We printed more than 300 sheets, ripped every frame by hand, mounted them onto green card, and masked everything frame-by-frame to keep the animation smooth. This totaled into over 3000 individual, ripped paper elements."In the end, the amount of work was ridiculous, but it gave the video a look and feel we couldn't have achieved any other way."
Promonews - 2 months ago
videoRavyn Lenae 'Handle' by Andre Muir
Andre Muir returns to collaborate with R&B singer-songwriter Ravyn Lenae with a restrained but emotionally-charged portrait of movement, intimacy and self-possession.Captured in cool tones, natural light and dreamlike interiors and exteriors, the video for Handle finds Ravyn in a liminal space that feels both grounded and surreal. The people who populate the area with her become her community, expressed through an explosive dance routine that takes us out of the dream-state for a while and adds to its emotional weight.The visual is also a departure from the previous collaboration between Muir and Lenae in 2024, on the UKMVA-nominated video for One Wish, which took a nostalgic trip through the artist's past to great effect. Here she is presenting a different aspect of her personality - in fact, she is more centre stage: assured and self-possessed, enigmatic and deeply human.In that respect, this video - the first from her forthcoming new album Blue Island - makes an important statement about Ravyn Lenae's evolution as an artist.
Promonews - 3 months ago
videoJohn Newman 'Merry Go' by Louis Bhose
Louis Bhose reintroduces John Newman to the world with a touch of self-mockery, as the soul singer meets the contenders who are auditioning to be him in his upcoming comeback.The video for Merry Go starts in an intriguing fashion with Newman welcomed at a film studio by his manager with the words: 'Welcome to Hell'. It turns out he is encountering an assortment of odd characters who are 'playing' John Newman.It's an engaging satire of the pop business and the real John Newman gives a nicely judged performance observing the activity around him with occasional alarm but mostly resigned equanimity. And finally, he gets involved himself, taking his own place in the group of 'John Newmans' for a dance routine. So this a very welcome return to videos by Louis Bhose too. He is a director with genuine funny bones, who relishes bringing surprising ideas to life. And he's certainly done that here. "John was very clear from the off that he wanted to play with the idea of a big comeback, and the idea of lots of people auditioning to be him was a fun one," says Bhose. "He even went as far as digging out all his iconic jackets from the loft, and letting our supporting cast wear them."I always liked the idea that after an offbeat series of auditions, there would be a fun, sweet moment where they all came together. And so came Harry Price's great choreo - which everyone (including me) learned. Having not made a vid for 18 months or so, it was a really fun one to get back into the groove with."And surprisingly, John was desperate for an extended intro - damn the views!!"
Promonews - 4 months ago