In case you missed it amid conservative concern and sneaker suits, there was another skirmish about Lil Nas X’s new, much-discussed song and music video, “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).”
Shortly after Lil Nas X released the video, fans began to notice similarities between his video and the video for FKA twigs’ “Cellophane,” (a song and video that I love) that debuted in 2019. In fact, “Cellophane” began to trend on Twitter.
The director of the “Cellophane” music video, Andrew Thomas Huang, also took to social media to express his disappointment, claiming that Lil Nas X’s record label initially reached out to him, but decided to move on without him while hiring the choreographer from FKA twigs’ video.
For comparison purposes, here’s FKA twigs’ video:
...and here’s Lil Nas X’s:
As for FKA twigs herself? It’s all good in the hood. The singer took to her Instagram page to clear up any speculation that the two were beefing over the similarities.
“Thank you @lilnasx for our gentle honest conversations and for acknowledging the inspiration ‘Cellophane’ gave you and your creative team in creating your iconic video!” she wrote in the caption. “I think what you have done is amazing and i fully support your expression and bravery in pushing culture forward for the queer community. legend status.”
“I want to thank @andrewthomashuang and @kelyvon for helping me create ‘Cellophane’ but also and most importantly I would like to thank sex workers and strippers for providing the physical language to make both videos possible. I have been working with @swarmhive to help support this community and I know all donations to the SWARM hardship fund will be welcome during this difficult time,” FKA twigs concluded in her post.
Lil Nas X also addressed the controversy and the call with FKA twigs in an Instagram post which read, “I want to show love to @fkatwigs & @andrewthomashuang! The ‘Cellophane’ visual is a masterpiece. I want to say thank u too twigs for calling me and informing me about the similarities between the two videos, as I was not aware they were so close. [I] was only excited for the video to come out. I understand how hard you worked to bring this visual to life. you deserve so much more love and praise.”
I’m glad these two talented individuals decided to clear the air and I actually wouldn’t be opposed to them possibly working together in the future. It would be interesting. We’ll see!