Kelela extends Pride to July with her PinkPantheress collaboration, “The Bridge”. Rise up KELELGBT+.

Kelela has released her third studio album, New Avatar. And with it, we get a music video for her song which features the girl of the moment, PinkPantheress.

Shout-outs to Kelela releasing several singles for an album giving us music videos to all but one, and giving them individual cover arts on streaming. Nobody is quite doing it like Kelela. Not even that white woman with the Confessions album and the pink kneepads. Although what she is doing with that album is pretty incredible. But that’s a whole other post.

Kelela was brought out as a surprise guest during one of PinkPantheress’ shows in New York, where they treated the audience to the first ever live performance of “The Bridge”. And I’ve gotta say — I wasn’t a huge fan of the song based on that performance. But I didn’t write the song off. Because sometimes great songs can have their greatness dulled by a live performance that’s not so great. So I said I would wait until the studio recorded version dropped before passing judgement. And now here we are, and I think the song is great.

“The Bridge” is a far better Kelela and PinkPantheress team up than “Bury Me” was. “The Bridge” sounds like it was always made with her in mind, compared to “Bury me” where it sounded like Kelela’s verse was just dropped into the song. Kelela sang her verse with no real regard for what PinkPantheress was doing on the rest of the song, and I did not care for it. So it’s great to hear Kelela and PinkPantheress on something which works for the two of them and sounds considered. And they also look great together in the music video.

Let us actually take a moment for the music video. Because it’s gorgeous.

Kelela featuring PinkPantheress - The Bridge | Warp Records

Despite the coldness of the aesthetic, the cool colour pallette and the semi-apocalyptic vibes, the video is so tender and has so much warmth. And there is this duality of wanting to be alone, yet longing for a connection with somebody. It really is such a beautiful music video which perfectly matches the song.

The music video for “The Bridge” was directed by Yasser Abubeker, who has been working with Kelela since Raven. Y’all remember that STUNNING video for “Washed Away”? He directed that. He has such a great eye for visuals and a way of making every shot a great freeze frame. There is just something special about the stuff he does with Kelela. His visuals always feel like the best visual representations of her songs. There is so much stillness in Kelela’s music, so translating that into a visual which captures that stillness without being boring is a real skill. And Yasser has it. He just gets it. He is incredibly talented. Kelela is a woman of TASTE. But we been knew that.

And the choreo? Bitch. Kelela better put on her Jean Grey wig and hit them moves on the New Avatar tour.

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💿 Album reviews: Take Me Apart | TAKE ME A_PART, THE REMIXES | Raven | RAVE:N, The Remixes

🎛️ Random J Mashup: Kelela x Hikaru Utada