After five years P!nk finally comes out with her new album, the official release date of the Beautiful Trauma is 13th October. She gave a pretty cool concert this year as well at Sziget Festival, then a week later she released the official videoclip of the hit song of her new album, which reached 44 million views on YouTube in just a month. ‘What About Us’ is artistically mysterious enough to let us think of anything from a heartbreaking story even to politics, and the videoclip isn’t helping us either: 2 men dancing sometimes fiercely, sometimes pretty erotically.
P!nk never hides her opinion about politics. In the song ‘Dear Mr. President’, from her album I’m Not Dead (2006), she addresses a not so pleasant message to George W. Bush, president of the US at the time. Some people find political stands in her fresh new song as well. Lately there were several changes in the politics of the USA, mostly because of the new president, Donald Trump. Since his unauguration, the US withdrew from Paris [climate] agreement, was threatened by nuclear war, and he has openly spoken against LGBTQ+ community.
Check the video if you haven’t seen it yet:
As the matter of fact, this part of the lyrics is up to you to interpret:
We are problems that want to be solved,
We are children that need to be loved
We were willing, we came when you called
But then you fooled us, enough is enough.
Of course, even with this, the song could still be about a breakup, but knowing P!nk, it would be super weird if this ambiguity would only be a coincidence. The new clip contains an LGBTQ+ reference as well, at some point quite baffling. Surely not because of 2 men dancing passionately, but because it’s hard to tell if they are fighting because of love or hate. Maybe this is why it is a masterpiece.
By the way George Hudson directed the video where P!nk and a group of dancers appear in different parts of L.A. It was choreographed by The Goldenboyz who also worked on the videoclip of her song ‘Try’.
No matter how we interpret the song and the clip, we should consider the words of Johnny McDaid about ‘What About Us’: “Explaining what a song is about is kind of a dangerous thing for me, because it takes away the possibility of a song becoming whatever it is to somebody that listens to it.”
According to P!nk, even beauty if fucking diverse
P!nk warmed our hearts not just with her new song, but with her speech at the MTV Video Music Awards, when she received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award - presented by Ellen DeGeneres. She came to the stage of course with a background music: Fucking Perfect!
In her speech, P!nk tells a story about her daughter who told her that she thinks she is the ugliest girl she knows. The first question that came to her mind was: who could have told that to her and if she can kick a 6 year old’s ass. Instead she made a Powerpoint presentation about singers and artists who are not ordinary, but who are inspiring people every day. She told her that even she is bullied about her being too masculine but she is not changing herself. P!nk stood up to beauty being diverse and confirmed her daughter about her beauty as well.
Translated by Zsófi Bártfai
