By: Papa Minnow

On August 28th KIANA held her music video premiere party at Aitch Lounge, a gorgeous downstairs venue with dimly lit lanterns reminiscent of the Victorian era that added a cloud of class and mystery to the room. While the idea of a music video premiere party struck me as odd at first, after the unveiling, I came to understand why she took that route. 

Artists typically premiere songs, EPs, or their full albums, but as an avid listening party goer, there have been numerous times where I’ve found that the listening gets lost and the partying takes over. But when it came to this premiere of the wait on me video, KIANA was able to capture the entire room’s buzzing attention by focusing solely on her concept.

As our attention spans continue to dwindle to pea size thanks to social media, holding a crowd’s attention gets harder by the minute. Thankfully the investment of this premiere was easy to sustain due to it’s minimality.

So easy in fact, that had you chosen to not pay attention, you would have been the sole weirdo. The anticipation leading up to the unveiling made the video a monumental showing, something so grandiose that it was impossible to escape. 

There is also an inherent risk to creating anticipation for that one moment, you don’t get a do-over, but KIANA’s confidence in herself and her team never wavered throughout the entire night. And thankfully she backed it up.

Moments prior to showing off the video, she delivered a heartfelt speech alongside the many others, such as feature singer Lou Celestino, who were involved in the creative process. This helped unveil the essence of the video and stir a soup of wonder within the minds of everyone in the venue. 

The video wasn’t solely a visual to accompany her song, it was an ocular experience set in a futuristic Tehran told in tandem with her lyrical prowess and real life atrocities that are occuring today. The immense effort of the many supporting friends and hands, reflects in every scene and detail of this video, showing the sheer time and dedication to this piece. 

Speaking with the visual effects director Daniel Pianezza, at the video premiere, he made a stout point about the creation of the video’s large architectures and designs. “12 weeks,” he said after the applause from the video came to a cease. “A video that lasts four minutes, took about 12 weeks of work to get it done.” 

A very stout point that puts into perspective the work required to get a video of this magnitude to the visual quality on display. 

The music is as soulful as ever and showcases KIANA’s somber but smooth vocals over ethereal beats (I wrote about it last year when it aired which you can read here). She’s accompanied here by Montreal’s own Lou Celestino delivers a powerful ballad of never giving up on love. 

His vocal tone and range on this song is a perfect compliment to KIANA’s. Here’s hoping that the two collaborate more often in the future. 

wait on me’s official music video aired on August 30th and you can watch it here. 

FEATURED IMAGE VIA: wait on me (Official Music Video)