The Artist Explains: BIIANCO - 'Get Up'

BIIANCO talks to us about her empowering debut single and accompanying visuals, for ‘Get Up’ - a gentle war-cry to the people who try to keep you down.

Where was the video for ‘Get Up’ filmed?
The video was filmed in a beautiful house in the Hollywood Hills.

How does the video connect with the song?
The song is about rising from adversity and becoming stronger than before. We really wanted to convey the theme of rising from the ashes of hardship stronger than ever so we dug into a lot of mythology in search for the best symbols. Our director, MK McGehee, did a lot of research and then suggested we portray Inanna, a prominent goddess in Sumerian mythology. Inanna went through A LOT. At one point, she descended into the underworld and was turned into a corpse and hung on a hook by her sister for thousands of years. Another time, she went back to the underworld and at each gate needed to strip herself of her power — i.e. her crown, her jewels, her riches — only to discover that by the final gate she was more powerful than ever before.

Do you have any behind the scenes stories you can share with us?
They really hung me from the ceiling to get that scene done right. It hurt!

The set was also entirely womxn and that was an intentional decisional. We’ve been so hardwired to think that femininity is a liability and not appropriate for the workplace. We encouraged everyone who was a part of the crew to really dig into that on set and with the creative direction. It created a kind of magic. And it’s worth noting that this was no easy shoot. We were on set for 14 hours, in a house with no heat, hanging me from the ceiling and in and out of bathtubs. But no one was complaining! We were seriously devoted to getting the most magical video we could.

Could you tell us about the ideas/ themes/ imagery used?
We leaned heavily into Inanna’s symbolism in this music video — especially in the fashion component. Zoe Zhou is a true genius and as soon as we had articulated the themes, she ran with it. She wanted to pull pieces that felt feminine and powerful. My favourite styling moment was her choice for a crown. A crown was a big part of Inanna’s symbolism and we had originally played with the idea of going with a really traditional looking crown, but then Zoe showed up with a Black Russian hat and explained that she wanted to be more abstract and cover it with baby’s breath flowers. The result is an image so strong and unique. She really brought that level of brilliance to all of her styling decisions.

Is there a message the video is trying to convey?
If people kick you down, keep working on you and rise like a phoenix.

Interview feature by Karla Harris