Queen Kwong, delivers a sultry and intimate video to their song,  “The Mourning Song” , from their 2022 record, Couples Only. Capturing the eerie isolation of a desolate strip club, sole-member Carré Kwong Calloway creates the perfect accompanying visuals to match her haunting, atmospheric vocals intertwined between the dark, grunginess of this slow alternative rock groove. “I’ve only ever loved one man and you weren’t that guy”, Kwong sings as she gives a pole dancing performance to a life-sized rat. This track delivers a soothing coldness with each of Kwong’s melodramatic drones through the empowering vulnerability of her lyrics creating the bigger picture that although mourning a love lost, she will be fine no matter what.

Queer director, Tammy Sanchez, drew inspirations from the real-life experience of her time as a dancer and found empowerment through using a part of her life many people shamed her for. Sanchez states,  “This video concept was born as a rejection of that notion. Originally, it was a rejection of shame and the mass cultural gaslighting women endure”. By portraying the sexuality and freeness within one’s own sexuality, the clear messages of freedom and letting go of shame projected by others is given the perfect stage to shine.

It is also important to note that all hands involved in the video’s production were all women and non-binary people. Both Sanchez and Kwong were looking to remove all power of the male gaze from this video, the emptiness of the video shows Kwong is doing everything she is doing for herself and nobody can own her. This artistic expression of women’s empowerment exists beyond the visuals placed in front of the audience’s face but the intentional and thoughtful behind the scenes work from Sanchez. “My voice is queer, femme, non-white, and disabled. A critical perspective, just like Carré’s. And just like her, I am not ashamed and won’t shut up”.

Although many may paint this song as only just another break up record, as the song’s lyrics do reference Kwong’s recent divorce from Limp Bizkit guitarist, Wes Borland, it is much more. Not only an expression of grief in heartbreak but also a statement of the empowerment found in one’s own solace.