It is a very rare and strange thing to see something as shady as removing a featured artist from album version to single version. It is in an entire other spectrum entirely to not only remove them in the new incarnation, but replace them as well. Although no statement has been made, the original singer for Mika's new single "Popular Song" Priscilla Renea has been taken out of it's newly revamped state and replaced with Victorious's Ariana Grande. Also there's this video.
Isn't this video super cute?
But we'll get to that in a second. While the action of replacing the little known featured artists with a currently huge mega TV star is pretty shady, I have to say that this song is much more appealing now. When I reviewed the album, this song didn't stand out in any way, making the simple mention of it being a single startle me. For it's own good, it has been redone, made more upbeat, and had all those awkward curse words taken out (I mean who wants to hear someone as adorable as Mika say bitch?).
The video itself is just the icing on top of the cake. The majority of the video has Mika and Ariana hatching out a plan to destroy the kids that tortured them in school. Basic enough right? Both of them have great costumes and makeup, to make their ever-so-appealing faces even cuter. The bits with the two staring blankly into the screen while mixing their potions has to be my favorite part of the entire bit.
The only down side is that the video seems a bit too dark in it's direction. I don't mean dark as in content, but instead art style. It looks like the director was trying to go for a Tim Burton theme, but didn't quite get to it's mark. The song is fun and upbeat, but the video is devoid of color, which makes it feel a little awkward on the first viewing.
So when it comes down to it, they did what they had to do to make the song better. Could they have gotten the same results by still including Priscilla? Probably. Would the video be well on it's way to a million views in just three days without Ariana? Probably not.
I love this version a lot better than the original (then again I love Ariana Grande more that Priscilla Renea). But what's with really cutesy songs with dark videos this year? First Cher Lloyd, now these two? Oh well. I will jamming to this song until Ariana's album comes out.
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