Premiere: Teddi Gold lives her best life ‘Je Ne Sais Quoi’ music video
The rising pop star’s new visual simpy dazzles.
Teddi Gold‘s “Je Ne Sais Quoi” is like sailing away on a tiny dinghy across a golden horizon. The waves beat against the sides, and the air hangs crisp and rejuvenating. And it’s that feeling Gold carried through the songwriting process, as she began to unfold and embrace her own creative freedom. As the world swirls with hateful invectives and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, it’s the sort of low-key banger that allows for a brief, necessary reprieve and electrifies the listener down to the bone marrow. It’s a song about “feeling like you have something special even when the world makes you feel like you don’t,” Gold shares with B-Sides & Badlands. “It’s a song about feeling like you don’t fit in but not caring. It’s taking ownership of yourself, of your strangeness, of your quirks, of everything that makes you, you. It’s about having a rich wild inner life and a curious mind.”
The music video, premiering today, exudes the same charm, finding Gold traversing the streets of Paris and fully owning the skin she’s in. “It is what it is until it ain’t what it isn’t,” she twirls her voice over starlit production. Having lived for a time in Paris with her “fabulous French uncle,” she was struck by the city’s “‘je ne sais quoi’ magic” and soon began her creative pursuits with a renewed spirit and energy. “Paris opened me up to a whole new world of art, culture, colors, architecture, fashion, love, romance, and passion,” she says, adding that it all “gave me permission to embrace my creative self.”
Gold returned to Paris last year to spend more time with her uncle and her friend Jules Banide, director of the new visual. “I’m very thankful for that trip because it was the last time I got to see my uncle as he passed away shortly after. He was very much an inspiration to me,” she continues. “He was gay. He was blind. He was always battling some kind of health issue. Yet, despite all the hardships, he still kept a ‘go get ’em’ positive attitude. When I think of Paris, I think of him. I think of Jules, who he introduced me to. I think of beauty, art, adventure, and magic, and that’s what I hoped to capture in this video.”
When Banide first met Gold years ago, the two “hit it off immediately. Dare I even say, we fell in love — an American girl and a French boy exploring every aspect the city had to offer,” reflects Banide. While Gold left to pursue her own ambitions, Banide decided to stay. “While she was off creating music, I was diving into the world of graphic design, art direction, typography, and movement. I got to watch Teddi create her world of color, joy, and humor. When she told me she was coming back to Paris for a short trip, she asked me if I wanted to direct her music video. I was excited to reunite one more time, merging our creative worlds, Music and Imagery. We decided to create a compilation of Parisian cliches and fantasies that juxtaposed the offbeat humorous lyrics and also represented her deep connection to Paris.”
Intercut between bright shots of Paris, visuals spin in hypnotic, kaleidoscopic shapes, owing to the work of Mira Frat and Hombeline Chuche with additional VFX by Zach Iddings. “It’s my life, why is everybody tripping?” ponders Gold through flecks of gold dust. “Short hair, don’t care / Super chill, laissez-faire / I’m just out here living.” Unconcerned about public opinion, Teddi Gold embodies the liberated spirit, one untethered and soaring high above the clouds. With an already-impressive catalog, “Je Ne Sais Quoi” is among her finest offerings — it’s guaranteed to get stuck in your brain.
