Jessie Ware Just Made the Most Charged Music Video of the Summer
A lift, a slow burn and half of London's cultural scene in the background, the Sauna video is Jessie Ware at her most effortlessly, irresistibly confident.
There are music videos and then there are music videos. Jessie Ware’s Sauna is the second kind, and if you haven’t watched it yet, clear your afternoon.
Directed by Jordan Rossi, the whole thing takes place in a lift. That’s it. That’s the set. And somehow it is the most charged, slow-burning, genuinely electric four minutes of visual content released this summer, which tells you everything you need to know about what Jessie Ware does when she’s operating at full power.
The energy is pure heat. Jessie pulls everyone around her into this world where expectations dissolve and something more honest takes over. Movement, desire, connection. The kind of intimacy that doesn’t need to be explained, just felt. It is the exact feeling the song was built to create, and the video delivers it without breaking a sweat.
The guest list is worth a scroll through too. Munroe Bergdorf, Kadiff Kirwan, Luke Day, Jake Cohen, Michaela Yearwood-Dan, dancers Jonathan Baker and Theo Maddix and a whole crew of artists and performers who make the whole thing feel genuinely alive rather than curated. This is clearly a room full of people who actually wanted to be there, and it shows.
“I have decided to make this summer a red hot Sauna summer,” Jessie said. “I love how this song makes people feel, it was made for dancing.” We are not going to argue with that.
Sauna follows Superbloom, her fifth studio album that debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart and has been one of those records that keeps revealing new things the more you listen to it. The album explores pleasure, womanhood, intimacy and connection through Jessie’s most cinematic songwriting yet, and Sauna feels like the chapter that ties it all together.
The Superbloom Tour lands later this year, with Radio City Music Hall in New York and a headline show at The O2 in London to close it out. On the evidence of that lift, the live shows are going to be extraordinary.
Credits:
Images courtesy of Jessie Ware
Words: Sebastian Kozak @seb_kozak
