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May 24, 2018 Christine and the Queens By Christopher Roberts

Christine and the Queens (aka Héloïse Letissier) recently shared a new song, “Girlfriend” (which features Dâm-Funk), as well as a French version of the song, titled “Damn, dis-moi.” It was one of our Songs of the Week. Now “Girlfriend” has a video. Jordan Bahat directed the video from a concept by Letissier. It features Letissier and others dancing on a skyscraper under construction. There’s also a video for the French version of the song. Watch both below.

Bahat says Letissier came to him with “Charles Ebbets’ photos from the 1930’s of builders relaxing on girders 60 stories up in the air and said, ‘these are the sorts of scenes I want to create for this video.’ Along with those pictures, there were color references from Tarsem and choreography references from West Side Story and Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad.’”

Christine and the Queens made waves in their native France with their 2014 debut album, Chaleur humaine. A more English language version of the album, simply titled Christine and the Queens, was released in America (and other English speaking countries) in 2015 via Because Music. “Girlfriend” is the first new song since that album.

Letissier had this to say about the song in a previous press release: “I initially set out to smash against macho culture and macho men. I became obsessed with this idea of the macho man, and still being a woman. What does it mean if I’m this figure, and I’m a woman? Does it make me an aberration? Is it joyful?.... I felt I had to address female desire and it’s diversity,” she says. “How sometimes it’s blacked out or ignored. It’s still something quite suspicious or slightly dirty. I felt like it was important to be more unapologetic about that. There are hints of nights spent having sex and coming back covered in sweat. Like a male figure, the young hero who has love stories, and comes back in the morning and his friends are like: ‘What happened to you?’ I want to be that.”

Christine and the Queens Tour Dates:

11 October - LUXEMBOURG, LUX @ ROCKHAL
12 October - BRUXELLES, BE @ FOREST NATIONAL
13 October - AMSTERDAM, NL @ AFAS LIVE
15 October - BERLIN, GER @ COLUMBIAHALLE
17 October - STOCKHOLM, SE @ NOBELBERGET
23 October - SEATTLE, WA @ THE SHOWBOX
26 October - OAKLAND, CA @ FOX THEATER
27 October - LOS ANGELES, CA @ THE WILTERN
31 October - NEW YORK, NY @ BROOKLYN STEEL - SOLD OUT
01 November - NEW YORK, NY @ BROOKLYN STEEL
02 November - PHILADELPHIA, PA @ UNION TRANSFER
04 November - WASHINGTON, DC @ 9:30 CLUB
05 November - TORONTO, CAN @ THE DANFORTH MUSIC HALL
06 November - MONTREAL, CAN @ PLACE BELL
17 November - BOURNEMOUTH, UK @ BIC
20 November - LONDON, UK @ EVENTIM APOLLO - SOLD OUT
21 November - LONDON, UK @ EVENTIM APOLLO - SOLD OUT
23 November - GLASGOW, UK @ ROYAL CONCERT HALL
24 November - EDINBURGH, UK @ USHER HALL
26 November - BIRMINGHAM, UK @ O2 ACADEMY
27 November - MANCHESTER, UK @ O2 APOLLO
30 November - DUBLIN, IRL @ RDS
04 December - NANTES, FR @ ZENITH
05 December - BORDEAUX, FR @ METROPOLE ARENA
06 December - MONTPELLIER, FR @ ZENITH SUD
11 December - GENEVE, FR @ ARENA
12 December - STRASBOURG, FR @ ZENITH
14 December - LYON, FR @ HALLE TONY GARNIER
15 December - TOULOUSE, FR @ ZENITH
18 December - PARIS, FR @ ACCORHOTELS ARENA

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