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Dec 17, 2020 Rotana By Caleb Campbell

Los Angeles-based artist Rotana has debuted the video for her latest single, “Stuck In America,” premiering with Under the Radar. With her art and music, the Saudi Arabia-born artist seeks to upend preconceived notions of what it means to be Muslim, an immigrant, and an Arab woman. Rotana is currently working on a debut album and her one-woman show, Alien of Extraordinary Ability. Her show was previously scheduled for a 6 week residency at the Manhattan Theater Club, but was canceled due to COVID. This year Rotana released her first single from the project, “Sin Again,” which reflected back on sexuality and self-pleasure in the context of her religious upbringing.

Rotana’s latest single, “Stuck In America,” is similarly liberated, examining the contradictions within the American system itself. When asked at the beginning of the video, “What is America?” Rotana answers “Freedom.” The first verse reflects that promise, with Rotana singing “Brown girl can do it all in America.” Yet, the American dream quickly falls apart as Rotana comes up against the racism endemic to the American experience and the greed that fills American culture. Rotana questions on the refrain, “When your flag moves it moves so beautiful/ Why won’t it dance for me?”

The song then descends into a heady dance pop haze, bringing forth a kinetic rush of processed vocals and swelling instrumentation. The production from Toulouse and xSDTRK creates a thick, sensuous atmosphere, the perfect complement to Rotana’s powerful lyrics. Rotana’s accompanying video also embodies the themes of the song through the use of Shibari rope suspension. The imagery of Rotana suspended in mid-air mirrors the same contradictions between liberation and control the song itself explores.

Rotana says of the track, “This song is about the American dream that never was. It is an immigrant’s story. It’s about the duality of this country, a place abundant with beauty and resources, but greed and separation rule, where sex is rampant, but sexual empowerment is suppressed. It’s about the prejudice and racism that is inherent in America’s systems. That’s the lyric “When your flag moves it moves so beautiful. Why won’t it dance for me?” Then the lyric moves into a command “dance for me, dance for me”. Despite its flaws, possibility is still thicker in the air here than it is in most places. Despite this government letting me down and trying to shut me out as a Muslim, I’ve found my voice with its people.”

She continues, “I remember being a kid and thinking America was the greatest place in the world. That if I could just get here, I would be free. I would be empowered. Then I got here and I got lost. I got lost in the politics of who I was as a Saudi Muslim woman in Trump’s America in a post 9/11 world. I got lost in the disconnected sex that’s everywhere. I got lost in the medication that they throw at you. I got lost. This place let me down. But I participated. The truth of it all is this: I was also oppressing myself. I let myself fall victim to the construct and idea that is “America”. I let myself be the victim. There is no geographical context in the entirety of this planet that can give anyone freedom. No country is ever going to free me. True freedom comes from within.” Check out the song below and watch the video, directed by Corrin Evans.