ANOHNI, former Antony and the Johnsons bandleader, has shared "Drone Bomb Me," the second single off Hopelessness, her forthcoming album featuring Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawke as executive producers.
After debuting the song on Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 show, the singer-songwriter shared a moving video for the track starring Naomi Campbell.
The visually-striking video, which was directed by Nabil alongside Givenchy 'Creative Director Riccardo Tisci, begins with a closeup of Campbell as she cries and lip syncs the sorrowful song from the center of an empty dance club floor. As the supermodel brings ANOHNI's devastating lyrics to life, the video's focus alternates between Campbell and team of modern dancers.
While the video is somewhat sparse, it draws its power from Campbell's presentation of the lyrics rather than try to illustrate gut-wrenching lyrics like "Blow my head off / Explode my crystal guts / Lay my purple on the grass." Watch it via Apple Music below.
The video marks the latest collaboration between Tisci and ANOHNI, who have been "cross-pollinating" since being introduced by performance artist Marina Abramovic seven years ago, according to Vogue. The pair worked on Givenchy's Fall 2013 "Gypsy" collection and on the French fashion line's ad campaign for its spring/summer 2016 line.
When premiering the track on Annie Mac's show, ANOHNI said: "It's a love song from the perspective of a girl in Afghanistan; say, a 9-year-old girl whose family's been killed by a drone bomb. She is kind of looking up at the sky and she's gotten herself to a place where she just wants to be killed by a drone bomb too," Spin says.
"Drone Bomb Me" follows the global climate change-themed single "4 Degrees," which dropped last December. Hopelessness is due out May 6 via Secretly Canadian and Rough Trade Records.
