Colombian-Canadian singer TEI SHI has been on our radar for a while as the purveyor of smooth, rich electro-pop. Her latest offering, a glamorous, otherworldly video for her track 'Say You Do', brings 90s pop star vibes with a futuristic spin.
The video is mesmerising and unsettling, as Tei Shi and her clones gyrate around the inside of a limo in the neon light. "You don't know me like you say you do/ You see it too," her angelic voice echoes. The choreography is at once sensual and alien, alternately drawing the viewer in and repelling them with each stroke of the hand or jerk of the head. The bold synths echo the assertive lyrics, as Tei Shi stares down the barrel of the camera.
'Say You Do' begins and ends with a recording of Teicher as a child from a home video. "I'm a bad singer," she says. "Can't do anything well. I think I sing so great... but I really never do anything right. I just hope one day I can be like Britney Spears." The unassuming vulnerability that she revealed as a child is juxtaposed with the powerful image she presents in the video, strutting in knee-high red latex boots.
However, the 26-year-old Teicher is still dealing with conquering the same contradictory insecurities, if in slightly more nuanced way. As she explained in an interview with NPR who debuted the video, "There's this idea that if you change, or evolve, or dare to be complicated, you're inauthentic, but I'm a chameleon, I'm always evolving. There's power in saying, 'I have many versions of myself and I can tap into whatever I want.'"
'Say You Do' taken from Tei Shi's debut album Crawl Space, out now.
Photo credit: JJ Medina
Words by Molly McLaughlin
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TEI SHI ‘SEE ME’ (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
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