Troye Sivan & the Art of a Good Music Video
You might know the pop singer Troye Sivan best from his 2023 hit ‘Rush’, accompanied by a sweaty, raw and unapologetically queer music video. Alongside his ‘Rush’ music video came ‘Got Me Started’ and ‘One of Your Girls’, building a shared world of night-long parties, self-expression and community. While the visual storytelling of these songs is centred around partying and casual connections, I would suggest there’s an underlying emotional desire for intimacy in Sivan’s world of fleeting connections.
The ‘Rush’ video was set in clubs across Berlin, creating a fast-paced and endless party environment. ‘Got Me Started’ picks up on this, exploring a sense of self-connection that can occur after a chance encounter with someone at a club. Set in Bangkok, the video follows a night of dancing across various backdrops; by the early hours, Sivan is scaling a building and running through the streets in a glittered jumpsuit, capturing a sense of exhilarating freedom and self-discovery.
In contrast, ‘One of Your Girls’ takes a more explicitly melancholy approach. The song explores the desire to be wanted even when it comprises your self-worth. For the video, Sivan is dressed in drag and dances sensually around Ross Lynch, who possesses a typically masculine aura. Talking about the video to People Magazine, Sivan says, “It's like, slay, there's this performance from a pop-star-girl version of me. But towards the end of the video, I think you really can see the vulnerability and the cracks that this isn't going to work." In drag, Sivan is confident and magnetic, yet the video carries a strong undercurrent of longing by feeling desirable without feeling desired for who you actually are. Just like he says, we see this fall apart at the end, as Sivan’s pop girl ego looks in the camera, holding back tears.
Continuing his work with music video director Gordon von Stiener, Sivan has added to this complex visual world with the release of his new album ‘She’s the Best'. In the video for the titular song (which is written as an ode for the women in his life), we join him across New York, immersing himself in the many multifaceted worlds of the women in the city. At a bar, he spots Nicole Kidman, and we watch them both become mutually entranced by each other until they become completely entwined. The video picks up on the importance of community and connection in its many forms, not just romantic ones.
His second single from this album, ‘Party’ transports us to a medieval celebration, with the introduction voiced by Sir Ian McKellan. The video reimagines this world of queer nightlife into another time, like if ‘Rush’ was transported to the Middle Ages. While the setting is different from the usual neon urban backdrops, the familiar sense of desire for freedom and connection remains, creating a timeless queer nightlife.
I’ve always felt drawn to Troye Sivan’s music videos, because beneath the parties, dancing and casual hookups, there’s an unspoken longing for something, a long-lasting intimacy that feels real. This felt true in ‘One Of Your Girls’, and the feeling resurfaces in ‘FF’, which Sivan describes to Universal Music as “an undying love song to a man I don’t know yet". The music video visualises his imagination, retaining passion and sexual energy, while also introducing a slow domesticity where we see Sivan and his lover encounter an ordinary life together. Yet, this fantasy doesn’t feel entirely safe. In some of the more ominous shots towards the end, we see Sivan lost at sea in a powerful current, while glasses in his house spontaneously smash. This disrupts the warmth and safety of his fantasy, adding some fragility.
After watching the ‘FF’ music video, I found myself interpreting the song a lot differently. At first it seems like a devoted love song; now I feel a certain heaviness listening to it, knowing for the most part this love isn’t real and occurs from a fantasy that may never materialise.
While many may know Troye Sivan as the singer of ‘Rush’ and his love for partying, I now feel more drawn to the emotional vulnerability in his music. His videos reveal a longing for intimacy and genuine community that make his work seem more personal than what it might first appear. Watching them has deepened my affection for his music by changing the way I listen to his songs and giving me a deeper level of meaning to think about.
Edited by Music Co-Editor, Mahak Naddafi
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