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[Premiere] Christine And The Queens Stretches Her Legs in US Video Debut

Watch Héloïse Letissier dance in the American premiere of "Saint Claude," the winner of Music Video of the Year 2014 in France.
Photo by Jeff Hahn. Images courtesy the artist

She's kind of a big deal in Europe. Christine And The Queens is the musician, performer, and visual artist alter ego of singer-songwriter Héloïse Letissier. "Saint Claude," the first official video from the album, quickly received over 7,000,000 views, earning her both Female Artist of the Year and Music Video of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique French Music Awards. As Noisey sadly noted, the video was previously blocked in the United States, but that all changes now. Today, The Creators Project gives you the American premiere of Christine And The Queens' music video "Saint Claude," directed by J.A.C.K.

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On a large, square platform in the center of a red room, Christine dances alone to the titular track. The scene is deceptively simple: at alternating points in the video, the artist's body parts seem to stretch and distort in a way that is at once terrifying and so subtle that you'll have to be watching closely to see it.

Christine explains the event that inspired her to create "Saint Claude": "I wrote 'Saint Claude' shortly after witnessing the most violent scene. A teenager was being teased by a whole autobus full of really different people. Their laughters were getting louder and louder; the kid was a weirdo talking to himself. I didn't stand for this kid—instead, I fled, feeling even lonelier than usual."

"The song was for him; it felt like a love poem, or an apology, or maybe both. So from the very beginning, I wanted the video to express that, but without any narration," she says. "Christine had to dance, completely alone. I wanted her to be in an abstract space, the equivalent of an empty theater stage—we could be anywhere. I had to find a way to express violence as well. For that, the body distortions came as evidence: after all, the kid had been teased for being seen as unbearably unfit—that's how you create proper freaks. It was also a perfect way to introduce my character: always in this suit, with those shoes, desperately trying to create her own genre - and torn in the whole process."

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It was all based on a video Christine shot on her own in a hotel room, improvising dance moves. Camille Hirigoyen and Julien Choquart, the directing duo that goes by J.A.C.K., tell The Creators Project that their video intended to "keep the raw initial emotion of that performance real," an effort which guided them through its making. "We used very sleek editing, deprived of an excess of cuts, and the effects of distortion added to Christine were played with to highlight the dancing and enrich her belief in the strangeness of bodies. For the lighting and the décor, we intended for the viewer to be mesmerized by the black spot that is Christine throughout the whole clip." A delicate dance between camera and choreography, "Saint Claude" was shot in one day. "At some point, I was not even thinking about looking good, or doing it right—it was visceral, it felt like screaming," Christine explains.

Check out the triumphant music video above, and stay tuned for Christine And The Queens' American live debut at SXSW, and the April 14 launch of her first US EP, Saint Claude, via Because Music in partnership with Neon Gold Records (pre-order it here).

Christine And The Queens US Live Dates:

March 20 - Hype Hotel - SXSW

March 20 - Neiman Marcus Make Some Noise / Music By Atlantic Records - SXSW

March 21 - Neon Gold Showcase - SXSW

April 15 - The Echo - Los Angeles

April 17 - The Warfield - San Francisco*

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April 18 - The North Park Theatre - San Diego*

April 21 - Le Poisson Rouge - New York

*supporting Marina And The Diamonds

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