On a roll with the Spanish singles from her forthcoming EP, Revelación, Selena Gomez has followed up “De Una Vez” with an equally as soothing track called “Baila Conmigo” featuring Rauw Alejandro (side note: it bears noting that OG Selena has a song called “God’s Child [Baila Conmigo]” with David Byrne). Directed by Fernando Nogari (whose other major music video credit is Ladytron’s “The Animals”), the picturesque visuals begin on the beach of Ceará, Brazil. A trio of boys (including the one who will the “hero” of this narrative) on motorcycles pass by an old woman ripping a tiger-print towel from a clothesline as the camera executes a seamless tracking shot into the house that the Grandma-type is in front of.
Lying languidly on the couch is a girl watching TV (the kind you would see in the 80s, hence the “out of time” vibe of the video). On it is Alejandro, before Gomez appears with a giant sunset behind her–in an aesthetic that smacks of something that would play on a karaoke screen (remember karaoke?). We soon see the girl from the couch on the beach herself, dancing in front of a goalie net as Motorcycle Boy gazes at her from afar with the patent initial feelings of yearning.
The rhythmic beat punctuates Alejandro and Gomez’s semi-erotic tones throughout the buildup of this relationship. When translated to English, of course, the message loses at least fifty percent of its sensuality and romance, but for those who would like to understand where the video’s storyline comes from, it bears noting that in inglés, some of the words mean, “Baby, I don’t know if you speak a lot of Spanish/If you understand when I say ‘my love’/Devouring each other without understanding each other is better/We only have to like each other/You want me to fall into temptation/Look how you have me/That accent you have I don’t understand much, but come/Dance, dance, dance with me/Dance, dance, and I’ll follow/Come close and let loose/Don’t leave without the desire to come back.” See, not even half as much pasión, but the gringas like to know what they’re attempting to sing along to every so often.
Now we see the girl at work (nonetheless in front of the ocean, so fuck her), still dancing, but this time before a wall of water jugs and propane cans. The boy, meanwhile, is on a fishing boat adjusting his radio dial (again, 80s flavor) to the same track his presumed soul mate is listening to as she watches Gomez perform dance moves on a laptop (and so we’re briefly transported back to the telltale signs of the shitty present) like she’s studying them for the creation of a viral TikTok video. He rides his motorcycle on the beach with friends before passing a Selena Gomez mural (because, why not? Even though she ain’t Brazilian and one would sooner be more likely to find an Anitta mural in that country).
As night falls, we see that he was apparently on his way to a beachfront bar all along. The girl, having studied Gomez’s choreography for most of the day, is ready to wow on the makeshift dance floor as the boy rides up to the joint. The two have a stare-down as motorcycles circle them, some animalistic acknowledgement of their immediate connection. This escalates to quicker-paced cuts: more scenes of the girl emulating Gomez on the TV, the boy racing through the desert on his bike and eventually riding to her on the beach. There is a beat of silence as the track cuts for them to look at each other as though they can see into one another’s soul before busting out with the same dance moves Selena has been serving loosely throughout.
Their bond through dance additionally makes the video something out of the 80s in terms of its Dirty Dancing-esque plotline. For the two have realized their attraction as a result of the way their bodies move together–and that is so often the true test of salacious synergy. At the end, the girl is on the back of the boy’s motorcycle and it seems as though they’ll stay frozen in this summer-specific moment forever. Ah, curse you, Spanish-speaking pop stars, for releasing these kinds of videos in winter (see: Anitta), when it only stokes our collective desire for the summer (and the carefree days of youth) all the more.
