With his single "Happy" still sitting atop the charts, Pharrell Williams silences his critics once and for all with the new video for its follow-up "Marilyn Monroe," the second single and opening track off his sophomore album "G I R L." The Neptunes hitmaker celebrates the different women of the world in the heavily-choreographed clip. Rocking his beloved, oversize red hat, the 41-year-old star dancing with scores of the happy-looking and racially-diverse female dancers in a red, white, and blue room, in outer space, and on a rooftop overlooking downtown Los Angeles.
Williams opens his "G I R L" album with this girl power song, which is about self-love and self-worth, and features vocals from English singer Kelly Osbourne. Its lyrics discuss helpless romantics and the perfect lady references to several female historical figures, including Marilyn Monroe, Egyptian queen Cleopatra and French heroine Joan of Arc, as Williams dismisses all three as "[meaning] nothing to [him]" and laments that he "just [wants] a different girl." He explained at the album's listening party that his intention was to write a tune that said that ideals of feminine beauty are redundant. "You don't have to be a certain weight, a certain height," Williams said. "For me, she doesn't have to be the statuesque American standard of what beauty is."
But "Marilyn Monroe" isn't really about Monroe, it's about all the ladies who are not Monroe, but that's OK, Williams doesn't judge. As he explained to The Sun: "I called the song 'Marilyn Munro' because she was beautiful. Then the lyrics name check Joan of Arc because she was heroic, and Cleopatra was wise. Women don't have to be any of that to be beautiful. You can just be your own thing." The song also functions almost as a title track, "The reason why I named it 'G I R L' in capital letters is because when you look at it, it looks a little weird. And the reason why it does is because society is a little unbalanced," Williams told BBC Radio 1.
The video, directed by Luis Cervero, wisely doesn't try to outdo the 24-hour-long shenanigans of the "Happy" video, opting instead for the playfully raunchy low-concept vibe of "Blurred Lines," back when all anyone was saying about that clip was that it was "playfully raunchy." It's the kind of video where large portions are set on a goofy lavender moonscape, where Williams' hats practically get a feature credit, and where Osbourne interrupts the proceedings from nowhere, like she does on the track, to go on about the groove and disappear. Like "G I R L," it knows that pop ubiquity should never be taken too seriously. Watch Williams salute diversity in the colorful clip below.
Williams opens his "G I R L" album with this girl power song, which is about self-love and self-worth, and features vocals from English singer Kelly Osbourne. Its lyrics discuss helpless romantics and the perfect lady references to several female historical figures, including Marilyn Monroe, Egyptian queen Cleopatra and French heroine Joan of Arc, as Williams dismisses all three as "[meaning] nothing to [him]" and laments that he "just [wants] a different girl." He explained at the album's listening party that his intention was to write a tune that said that ideals of feminine beauty are redundant. "You don't have to be a certain weight, a certain height," Williams said. "For me, she doesn't have to be the statuesque American standard of what beauty is."
But "Marilyn Monroe" isn't really about Monroe, it's about all the ladies who are not Monroe, but that's OK, Williams doesn't judge. As he explained to The Sun: "I called the song 'Marilyn Munro' because she was beautiful. Then the lyrics name check Joan of Arc because she was heroic, and Cleopatra was wise. Women don't have to be any of that to be beautiful. You can just be your own thing." The song also functions almost as a title track, "The reason why I named it 'G I R L' in capital letters is because when you look at it, it looks a little weird. And the reason why it does is because society is a little unbalanced," Williams told BBC Radio 1.
The video, directed by Luis Cervero, wisely doesn't try to outdo the 24-hour-long shenanigans of the "Happy" video, opting instead for the playfully raunchy low-concept vibe of "Blurred Lines," back when all anyone was saying about that clip was that it was "playfully raunchy." It's the kind of video where large portions are set on a goofy lavender moonscape, where Williams' hats practically get a feature credit, and where Osbourne interrupts the proceedings from nowhere, like she does on the track, to go on about the groove and disappear. Like "G I R L," it knows that pop ubiquity should never be taken too seriously. Watch Williams salute diversity in the colorful clip below.
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