While Addison Rae might have only been five going on six years old when Aquamarine came out, clearly it must have had a lasting subliminal impact on her. For the title of her latest single to follow up the Lana Del Rey-“coded” “Diet Pepsi” doesn’t just seem to be an allusion to the color of the ocean (or at least the parts of it that haven’t been ravaged by human-helmed pollution), but also to a mermaid or mermaid-like creature.
That’s the perspective Rae definitely sounds like she’s speaking from after the song opens with a series of “The Boy Is Mine”-esque (the Brandy and Monica one, not the Ariana Grande one) harp strings. Rae then sensually coos phrases such as, “Aquamarine/Honey, dive into me/I’m not hiding anymore/I won’t hide/The world is my oyster/Baby, come touch the pearl” (it’s only slightly “subtler” than, “Yeah, you fuckin’ with some wet-ass pussy”). Needless to say, the word “cookie” has some new competition now that Rae has used “pearl” this way (not that Mia Goth’s Pearl would mind). And to play up the sybaritic nature of the song, where else would Rae film the video but in Paris?
Reteaming with her “Diet Pepsi” director, Sean Price Williams (who also did the cinematography, as that’s been his long-standing métier), parts of it were shot in deserted streets and alleyways at night, while the rest was filmed in The Peninsula Hotel (which gets a thank you in the listed credits). It is the latter milieu that Rae takes advantage of the most, sporting an “Eyes Wide Shut-worthy” mask as she prances around at a party, spritzing Chanel No. 5 on herself (again, playing up Paris, not Camila Cabello’s lackluster single) and splashing around in the bathtub while spewing water out of her mouth like a fountain (or like Aquamarine, the mermaid).
As for the sonic landscape, created by producers Luka Kloser and Elvira (Anderfjärd), it mimics the lulling nature of being underwater or simply floating in it. Which is precisely Rae’s enchantress-y intent as she sings in her most siren-meets-Ariel (à la “Part of Your World”) voice, “I’m dancing in my own reflection/I’m the ray of light” (re: that phrase, Madonna has been quite the influence lately on lyrical language, from FKA Twigs’ “Perfect Stranger” to Shygirl and Saweetie’s “Immaculate”). Of her overall prowess/embracing her feminine power, Rae also adds, “I’m transforming and realigning [something MARINA knows all about]/I’ll take you with me high, high, high, high.”
To show off part of why she’s feeling so confident, Rae engages in all manner of well-choreographed acrobatics—whether on a chair in the middle of the sidewalk or a bridge overlooking the Seine (which comes across as being suspiciously shimmery and romantic in this context). As for the chair dancing, it of course harkens back to Britney Spears in the “Stronger” video (itself riffing on the chair dancing of Madonna’s “Open Your Heart” video). And Rae has very much been in “Britney mode” lately with her Spears circa 2003 attire. So it’s no wonder she starts chanting (like some sort of “Daddy”-conjuring love spell), “Give me more” toward the end of the song—something Spears already illustriously repeated like a mantra in her own erotic way on 2007’s “Gimme More.” At the same time, it doesn’t seem like Rae needs anyone to give her more (unless it’s more nicotine) in order to validate her self-confidence.
Case in point, in contrast to Rihanna telling a man, “Want you to make me feel/Like I’m the only girl in the world,” Rae is quick to assert that feeling for herself by declaring, “The world is my oyster/And I’m the only girl.” It certainly appears that way as she struts down the street blowing smoke in the direction of a wowed onlooker. In point of fact, it seems as though the real reason she homed in on Paris as her filming location was for the cigarette appreciation there—hence, smoking two cigarettes at the same time in one scene. A “feat” that was highly appreciated by the Cigfluencers account on Instagram.
Elsewhere, a reference to Titanic serves as a romantic nod paired with a more “profane” suggestion in contrasting lyrics that describe, “Heart of the ocean around my neck/Don’t have to say it/You know what’s next.” (Hopefully, being painted in the buff…not drowning.) In another seductive lyrical instance, Rae speaks in a manner similar to Britney Spears’ intonation on “Touch of My Hand”—specifically, “I love myself, it’s not a sin/I can’t control what’s happenin’—when she says, “Swimmin’ in the sea with the salt in my hair/Kissed by the sun, it’s a love affair.”
During the “third act” of the video, Rae does a costume change into a nude-colored ensemble as she dances in an alley with backup dancers (among them being Belen Leroux, Jal Joshua, Lea Vlamos and Patric Kuo) that also seem to have watched some of Madonna’s more orgiastic choreo (e.g., the end of “Deeper and Deeper” from The Girlie Show or pretty much any performance of “Hung Up”). And yes, there is an instance where it looks like Rae and company are giving their own update to vogueing with those hand gestures of theirs.
The video concludes with her leaning against one of her dancers as though not only surrendering to the night and the proverbial pleasure, but as though to accent her final declaration of the song: “I’m free.” Sort of like the original Aquamarine at the end of the 2006 movie of the same name.
[…] a clear influence), Rae has to be near an ocean at some point…especially since she wasn’t in the original video, favoring use of a bathtub for her body of water […]