Canadian Music Blog’s Top 10 Music Video Faves of 2012

We are counting down our favourite music videos of 2012. Regardless of when the song came out, to be eligible, the MV had to have been released within 2012. Sorry Jepsies, “Call Me Maybe” was released in 2011 (and was one of our favourites that year). In assembling our list, we were not concerned with how much we liked the song, simply with the video itself. If low on the violence, raunchiness, and expletive side, while beautiful to look at, clever, creative and original, had great wardrobe choices, some breathtaking cinematography, or a stellar message, the music video had a good chance of making our list. Here we go…

#10. “Love Again” by Kreesha Turner

Edmonton’s Kreesha Turner takes a journey through an iron gate and folding / pop out staircase from what looks like a video game or Fifth Element style Egyptian stone temple into an abandoned warehouse converted to a dance studio. She is greeted by a legion of hoodie-clad dancers atop blocks of stone. Turner dazzles throughout the video with a number of sleek black outfits and greets the viewers with bright-eyed sincere and confident gazes. Keep an eye out for the chandelier-lit, smash-through ceiling elevator with a nod to Charlie and Chocolate Factory. This is such a gorgeous video, it received a big thumbs up from Nelly Furtado. Watch…

#9. “Feel” by Victoria Duffield

Speaking of dancing, few can outdo Abbotsford, BC’s teen pop princess Victoria Duffield. The video begins with Victoria knocking on a formidable-looking door at a teal and vermillion wall. She enters a room with a propeller-bladed metal wall fan and lights resembling Luke Skywalker’s light saber. With her copper-coloured hair slapping through the air, she releases bursts of high energy power dancing. She proceeds with her crew through various rooms in the building all lit by lamps of various colours. In the words of Chekov, “(Sigh), I vas never zat young.” The whole video is like a fountain of youth. Watch…

#8. “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Walk off the Earth

We are not sure if Walk off the Earth are members of the Flat Earth Society, but they grabbed a novelty song from around the globe and turned it into one of the cleverest music videos of the year – five musicians cover Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” while simultaneously playing a lone guitar. Big beardie and crew taught us that you do not necessarily need a big budget and elaborate set to create an enjoyable video, just some clever ideas, skill, and talent. To date, the video has been watched on YouTube over 140 million times. Let us hope for Sarah’s sake that the men showered before they crowded her on the chesterfield, eh. Watch…

#7. “Co-Pilot” by Kristina Maria

Think about a Stress Centre and most of us would name the airport: lost luggage, long queues, jet lag, delays, taserings, getting accosted by Customs, the fear of flying, watching your new laptop get fingered by the drooling security dudes, and having your belt buckle set off the alarms. In 2012, Ottawa’s Kristina Maria came to the rescue, relieving all those pent up stresses from all of our bad experiences, by dancing up the airport with a multiethnic squadron of dancers. The video begins with a headphoned girl chuckin’ and jivin’. A security guard approaches her, and we think he is going to tell her to settle down. But unexpected twists happen and before you know it pilots and flight attendants join in the fun. Corneille adds some fabulous French for a true Canadian bilingual treat. Watch…

#6. “Le jour se lève” by Garou

This was a #1 Hit for Esther Galil in September 1971; it topped the charts in France for 4 weeks. Canadian soul singer Garou, off his bilingual album Rhythm and Blues, interprets it brilliantly. The mood the video sets is a perfect complement to the music. Looking like it comes out of an Orson Wells film, it is shot beautifully with gorgeous lighting and shadows in a night of fog, alleys, lamp posts, pool hall, and a dimly lit jazz club with a wooden revolving door. A mysterious motorcycle woman brushes shoulders with Garou on the sidewalk, and she drops something. He assumes it is a wallet, stoops down to pick it up, and finds a surprise. Watch…

#5. “I’m Just Me” by Diamond Rings

We haven’t seen a video this cool since John Foxx’s “No One Driving”. Another John (O’Regan), as Diamond Rings, fills an ominous void formed when the visionary electronic rock artists of the early 80s retired from the scene and left us surrounded by 1990s skaters in crotch-drop pants and 2000s heavily-tattooed yoga pants lovers. John reminds us why new wave fashion rocked. He combs his platinum blonde hair upwards, dons a silver space cadet uniform, holds a tennis ball with flashing lights, shows off glow-in-the-dark nail polish, slowly rotates his head adorned with diamond-themed shades, all amidst a stage set of TV screens, dry ice, and fanned out green laser beams. Watch…

#4. “Burning” by Mia Martina

Mia Martina is one of the few artists who can and does release both English and French versions of her songs, a true Canadian trooper. “Burning” offers crisp, clean, images of a high society evening in an intricately decorated indoor space graced with the presence of human flame throwers and a sax player dancing within a kaleidoscope of showering sparks of light. Mythic oil, red candles, framed mirror, a pair of sparkly shoes, gold evening gown, lots of jewellery, with ribbon rhythm dancing complete with confetti are everything a party-goer needs. You can tell a music video is good when you turn the sound off and your eyes are still glued to the screen. This is one of them. Watch: English Version French Version

#3. “Beauty and a Beat” by Justin Bieber

This video broke a VEVO record, racking up the most views ever in a 24-hour period with 10.6 million. Filmed in a clever way with a smiling Justin apparently pulling the camera while walking backwards and turning around, it was filmed at Raging Waters Theme Park in San Dimas, California, USA. The video shows an assortment of acrobatic dancers in and around swimming pools of various shapes and splash dancing in an ankle-high wade pool. Flashing coloured lights abound amidst the plants and straw covered bamboo bridges, the video being filmed after dusk. And for the grand finale, the Biebs comes down a water slide into a pool of a cheering crowd in broad daylight. Watch…

#2. “Missing You” / “Tu me manques” by Mia Martina

The French and English music videos for the song are slightly different. In either case, the intense images match the yearning music. The MV opens with a view overlooking a town by the sea (we’re guessing Dubrovnik, Croatia), and we find Mia in a breezy room with a rotary telephone. She emerges, and we see some intricate Spanish architecture and streets of Madrid before she takes a drive in the countryside in a classy white car with a backdrop of copper-stained rock. We then see Mia in a green evening gown surrounded by Greek pillars and a marble staircase. It all wraps up with time-lapsed photography of night traffic. Mia states this will be the final MV release from her Devotion album. We can’t wait for her next album release. Watch: English Version French Version

#1. “Wonder Woman” by Elise Estrada

When the tragedy of a 15-year-old girl named Amanda Todd, harrassed and bullied into suicide, struck Metro Vancouver, making news around the world, Elise Estrada wrote a song called “Wonder Woman”, its music video put together with tremendous expertise. It contains snippets of Amanda’s life growing up, intermixed with Elise walking through beautiful parks and streets, the ground covered with dying autumn leaves. It opens with a young boy clinging to a fence saying that bullying needs to stop and shows scenes from candlelight vigils held in the city to honour Amanda Todd’s memory. Elise is also shown behind a window in a café, the panes of glass streaked with tears of teeming rain. The video also includes photos sent in by various people touched by the song holding placards of messages.  All proceeds raised by the song are going to the Amanda Todd Foundation dedicated to the elimination of bullying as well as suicide prevention.

The powerful message this video presents, the expertise in putting it together, and the gorgeous cinematography all combine to deliver the best music video of 2012. The Canadian Music Blog declares Elise Estrada’s “Wonder Woman” 2012′s Music Video of the Year. Watch…

 

Canada Breaks Into the Top 5

Carly Rae Jepsen has done something no Canadian artist throughout 2011 was able to do—score a Top 5 single on the Canadian Billboard Hot 100. “Call Me Maybe” is at #4 this week. The last time a Canadian song charted this high was way back in May 2010 when the nation was enthralled with the Young Artists for Haiti rendition of K’naan’s “Wavin’ Flag”. The highest charting Canadian single last year was Avril Lavigne’s “What the Hell” (#8).

That’s not the only good news for Canadian artists. This week, Burlington Ontario’s band Walk Off the Earth are in the Top 20 with their cover of Gotye’s song “Somebody That I Used to Know“. It jumped from 99 to 13 on the Canadian Hot 100 mostly due to its (we won’t use that horrid v-word) YouTube video—28 million views in 2 weeks. The song is a cute and simple ditty and the MV includes Sarah Blackwood from another Burlington band called The Creepshow. She’s not to be confused with Dubstar’s Sarah Blackwood … or is she? Anyways, go Burlington!