Christine and the Queens, the stage name of French singer Héloïse Letissier, debuted the stunning American musical homage video for her acclaimed single “Girlfriend.” The video is also available in French with the title “Damn, dis moi.”

The concept of the video was developed by Christine herself and was directed by Jordan Bahat. He describes how Christine 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 colour references from Tarsem and choreography references from West Side Story and Michael Jackson’s “Bad.”

“Girlfriend” draws inspiration from American musicals while the song explores radical concepts of masculinity and gender. “The message is both simple and radical,” says Christine and the Queens. “Simple because the video relies on energy and an effective use of choreography: more physical, sensual and assertive. Radical in terms of its aesthetics: here, the gang concept blurs the lines between ballerina and thug, as was often the case in American musicals such as West Side Story.”

The song was written and produced by Letissier, and according to a statement, the upbeat track “pays tribute to her long-time love of the G-funk sound,” and features contributions from an expert in the genre: the one and only Dâm-Funk. The video moves effortlessly while Christine and her dancers move around with a dusky orange sky behind them. Once the video ends, you can’t help but get up and dance.

Christine and the Queens released her self-titled debut album in 2015, it featured the acclaimed single “Here.”  It sold 1.3 million units across the world. After that, she toured North-America multiple times, played Coachella, Governors Ball. She performed the song “Tilted” on numerous late night shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and Late Night with Seth Meyers and the song was featured in the season finale of Better Things on FX.

Watch “Girlfriend” below and check out the itinerary of Christine and the Queens upcoming Fall tour.

Christine and the Queens  2018 Tour:

10/11 – Luxembourg, LU @ Rockhal
10/12 – Brussels, BE @ Forest National
10/13 – Amsterdam, NL @ Afas Live
10/15 – Berlin, DE @ Columbiahalle
10/17 – Stockholm, SE @ Nobelberget
10/23 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
10/26 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
10/27 – Los Angeles, CA @ Wiltern
10/31 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
11/01 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
11/02 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
11/04 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
11/05 – Toronto, ON @ The Danforth Music Hall
11/06 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Square
11/17 – Bournemouth, UK @ BIC
11/20 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
11/21 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
11/23 – Glasgow, UK @ Royal Concert Hall
11/24 – Edinburgh, UK @ Usher Hall
11/26 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy
11/27 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo
11/30 – Dublin, IE @ RSD Main Hall
12/04 – Nantes, FR @ Zenith
12/05 – Bordeaux, FR @ Metropole Arena
12/06 – Montpellier, FR @ Zenith South
12/11 – Geneva, FR @ Arena
12/12 – Strasbourg, FR @ Zenith
12/14 – Lyon, FR @ Halle Tony Garnier
12/15 – Toulouse, FR @ Zenith
12/18 – Paris, FR @ AccorHotels Arena