The new music video from Grammy winners A Great Big World for “Boys In The Street” is certain to strike an emotional chord in LGBTQ audiences.
Directed by Se Oh and choreographed by Emmy Award winning choreographer Travis Wall (So You Think You Can Dance), the video chronicles a father’s journey to accepting his son for who he is.
Through Wall’s richly layered choreography, we follow a young gay man (alternately played by Aydin Eyikan and Wall) who fights to save his fractured relationship with a homophobic father (Colin Cunliffe). Kudos to director Oh for using light and darkness as a metaphor for where the father’s inability to truly ‘see’ his son.
The music video delicately crystallizes both the raw pain and unending hope that queer people can experience in their search for affirmation from their parents.
Chad King, vocalist for A Great Big World, recently told HuffPost he hopes people will “connect with the honesty and authenticity of the story behind the song and video, and to maybe have an awareness and appreciation for someone else’s struggles and differences in a way they haven’t had before.”
King’s band mate, Ian Axel, added, “The dance world has always embraced our music, really since we started making music together and we can’t think of a better way to visually tell the stories of our songs.”
“We’ve been fans of Travis’ for a while now and have always wanted to work with him,” he continued. “There are few choreographers who make our hearts burst like Travis does. We’re so honored and thrilled that he was open to be a part of this!”
“Boys In The Street” is the duo’s follow-up to their 2019 hit, “Fall On Me” with Christina Aguilera, which has garnered over 30 million streams worldwide.
The band first teamed up with Aguilera to spectacular results on their seven-times-platinum GRAMMY award-winning hit “Say Something.”
Song of the year!
Beautiful!
So happy your doing a story on them , they’re literally one of my top favorite bands! Both albums they released and a few singles are still on my playlist , so good.