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Music

Take a Minute to Watch Alessia Cara's Video for “Scars to Your Beautiful”

To celebrate her 20th birthday, Cara dropped the video for her current hit single, further underlining exactly what she's got to say.

Yesterday singer Alessia Cara celebrated her twentieth birthday and the amid celebrations she decided to drop a video for her powerful single “Scars to Your Beautiful"—the third single off of her debut album Know It All (which came out late last year). Of course we've been shouting about Cara for years (well, since 2014) and we were lucky enough to take her on a First Date a few months back too. She's a singer whose power lies in her huskily soulful vocals and the vulnerability that bleeds through in her songwriting. The video for "Scars to Your Beautiful" further underscores this. The song itself is a heartfelt anthem that aims to tackle some of the on-going societal issues surrounding beauty, acceptance, and the right to love freely. These are just some of the themes embedded throughout. Cara credits Christina Aguilera's “Beautiful” and TLC’s “Unpretty” as sources of inspiration for the record.

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It opens with shots of a diverse group of individuals who all struggle with the themes highlighted in the track—some are cancer survivors, some are transgender people, an array ethnicities stand front and center. In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Cara discusses her vision for the video. “I wanted all kinds of people—young, old, whatever their situation, whether it’s visible scars, non-visible scars —just a bunch of different women, and there are some men in there as well because it can reach out to guys too. I wanted real shots of real people telling their stories, and showing the story through little vignettes.”

In our current social and political climate this video with its overarching messages of love, acceptance, and empowerment, works together to contribute to the conversations and current controversies. (Not to mention falling in line with Style Like U's years-long, very awesome "What's Underneath" project.)

Self-directed by the young singer, "Scars…" again only proves that Cara's not merely a successful pop singer, but also an artist aware of her platform and her influence with regards to promoting a larger message. The 20-year-old singer is currently on tour with Coldplay and plans to start up the second round of her headline tour in late September for her Know-It- All Tour Pt. 2. Catch her on Seth Myers on July 19th and watch the video below.

Alessia Cara Tour Dates Sept. 29 Silver Spring, MD The Fillmore
30 Philadelphia, PA The Fillmore
Oct. 1 Boston, MA Orpheum Theatre
4 New York, NY Radio City Music Hall
6 Detroit, MI The Fillmore
7 Chicago, IL Chicago Theatre
8 Minneapolis, MN Orpheum Theatre
10 Denver, CO Paramount Theatre
11 Salt Lake City, UT The Depot
13 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern
15 Las Vegas, NV The Foundry Hall at SLS
17 San Francisco, CA Masonic Theater
18 San Diego, CA Copley Symphony Hall
19 Phoenix, AZ Comerica Theater
21 Grande Prairie, TX Verizon Theater
22 Houston, TX White Oak Music Hall
24 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium
25 Atlanta, GA The Tabernacle
27 Clearwater, FL Ruth Eckerd Hall
28 Miami Beach, FL Fillmore at Jackie Gleason Theater
29 Orlando, FL Hard Rock Live
Nov. 1 Montreal, CAN Metropolis
2 Toronto, CAN Massey Hall