Watch our girl crush Glowie’s new video for Cruel
After her success of her debut single ‘Body’, the Icelandic alt-pop singer releases her second music video for ‘Cruel’ today. She made the track with Tayla Parx, a force to be reckoned with in American music after penning ‘thank u, next’ with Ariana Grande and recently being linked to Anderson .Paak. The song is a mini-manifesto of divine digital sonics and a massive warning to anyone who gets in Glowie’s way. “Wouldn’t the world be so boring if we all looked the same?” says Glowie, “Wouldn’t the world be so boring if we were all perfect? I want Cruel to inspire anybody suffering hardship in the world to say to themselves, it’s okay to not feel okay sometimes. It’s the hard times that make us stronger.”
The message of the song is not only about confronting bullies but your inner demons, who constantly tell you to strive for perfection. Glowie personifies her inner struggles and uses the metaphor of a lover in her lyrics yet all this inner turmoil is routed in self confidence and the heightened pressure of millennial perfection. In an open letter from Glowie, posted on her Tumblr page she says; “But people are Cruel I’ve been Cruel to people, people have been Cruel to me and mostly I’ve been Cruel to myself.”
Not only would this battle resonate with many of her young fans, but the aesthetics of the music video make it a compelling watch too. Set in empty halls of a hospital, Glowie dances around whilst interacting with various other people who are unresponsive towards her. Her frustration about this isolation is expressed through her dramatic dance moves. Glowie herself commented on the video; “The girl in this video is frustrated, confused and vulnerable all at the same time. Sometimes we just need a moment to let ourselves be angry, let everything out, in order to feel better and move on.”
