Russia’s follow-up to the singing grannies is a soaring power ballad that will make your eyes cry, roll, or something in between. In this review, I unpack the use of manipulation in pop culture and manage to work in references to both Terminator and Star Wars. Hey, sometimes it happens.
Check out the original music video for “What If” by Dina Garipova here. For more videos from Overthinking It, including our coverage of Eurovision 2013, subscribe to our YouTube channel.
My immediate thought is that the music video violates the “show vs. tell” rule. We’re not supposed to feel inspired by her passion or the ideas that the song invokes, we’re supposed to feel inspired because the audience adores it – she just sort of stands there. By the way, there is a hilarious contrast between the lavish theater and the dark, clean scene. It really looks like they’ve filmed two different clips and cut and pasted them together.