Listen To Karen O’s ‘Yo! My Saint’, Featuring Michael Kiwanuka, For Kenzo’s Campaign
Karen O
Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O’s new song is a 5-minute little drama featuring Michael Kiwanuka’s soulful deep voice, with a gospelic spirit and a very catchy vibe. ‘Yo! My Saint’ sounds like an epic soundtrack for a movie about a passionate crime or an impossible love, a woman-man musical dialogue, burning itself with passion: ‘There was something to believe in /I’m tired of the lies they tell/I’m trying to disguise myself/The perfect crime that I’ll commit/Is loving you despite all of it’ sings Karen, before Michael answers: ‘You’re my saint, you’re my saint/You’re my saint, you’re my sensation’. I had never thought about a collaboration between the UK singer songwriter and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman, but this actually sounds very good. The song ends like a sweet and nostalgic ballad after a chorus where their voices blend and self consume with a burning desire and plenty of heartbreak.
But YO! MY SAINT is not just a song, it is actually a ‘three-pronged artistic endeavor incorporating music, film, and fashion’. The song was actually posted a few weeks ago, but it only got my attention a few days ago because Karen O had a ‘Yo! My Saint’ pop up shop yesterday in Los Angeles, selling vinyl and custom screen printed tees.
Karen O wrote the song for an artful campaign film directed by Ana Lily Amirpour for French/Japanese designer Kenzo, and starring Dirty Beaches’ Alex Zhang Hungtai, who plays a fashion photographer falling in love with model Kiko Mizuhara. The song is stretched during the mini-movie with the two characters singing to each other
Watch below the two versions below, you needs to watch this twice to fully appreciate the ‘culmination of creativity erupting from KENZO’s Spring/Summer 2018 collection’:
