Wednesday 7 November 2018

New Music: Nilüfer Yanya - Heavyweight Champion Of The Year (Video)


Nilüfer Yanya last appeared on Breaking More Waves blog ticking the ‘musician in the bath’ box earlier this year (here). This time she goes one further and as Friendly Fires once suggested we all do, jumps in the pool for her new single Heavyweight Champion Of The Year. And being an arty and credible sort of musician, she doesn’t jump in like the 20 million record selling Sabrina for her 80's 'classic' video Boys Boys Boys (complete with the infamous nipple slip) or even splash around in shades and swimwear on a lilo like George Michael in the 'classy' Club Tropicana video. In fact, if you watch those 2 videos (just click on the song titles) it might make you consider how less serious and self-conscious things were in the 80s compared to now.

Nilüfer’s video reflects our time. It has depth of idea. There's no 'let's just lark around at a pool party ' here. Nilüfer states that the piece was about the concept of performance and the relation to the individual: “We are never really sure who is the real me. This is because we are all in a state of constant performance, whether that be in everyday life or being in front of a camera. Even when we are not performing, how do we know we are not performing? Which is the genuine and which is the fake? Only in retrospect we can look back and realise ‘I wasn’t being myself.” 

Maybe Sabrina did have those thoughts as she splashed around the beach balls and George perhaps pondered this concept as he sipped his cocktail? But even if they didn't the swimming pool (like the bath) certainly provides ample opportunity for the musician to conjure up all sorts of performance.

Nilüfer Yanya - Heavyweight Champion Of The Year (Video)

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