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A Scottish R&B star faked the sun and sea of St Tropez with Jersey’s coastline in her new music video in a bid to make a point about the ‘good lies’ millennials tell on social media.
The video for the latest single by 18-year-old singer Tallia Storm features a squad of girls enjoying all the aspects of ‘the good life’ – designer gear, yachts, private jets, and vodka and cocktails on tap. Or so it seems.
Despite song lyrics referencing Puerto Banus and the Cote d’Azur, all of the sun-soaked video’s action takes part across the island: at the Airport, on the coastline and on the Five Mile Road. Tallia did not know any of her apparent ‘BFF’s before the shoot took place. They were, in fact, a bunch of social media stars, including Jersey’s Bethany Moore, who uses Instagram to market her online fashion brand to more than 240,000 followers.
“The private jet didn’t leave the tarmac, the Grey Goose was in fact water, the coastline wasn’t St Tropez but Jersey and I had never met the girls before the shoot. But you know what? We had an absolute blast shooting it,” Tallia revealed.
Video: Tallia Storm's 'The Good Life', which aims to emphasise the fakery of social media.
The point of the song, she said, was to, “…highlight the harsh reality of Instagram” and the way in which people “cheat, exaggerate and even spin [their] visual identities.”
She too claimed she was guilty of the practice, having never participated in a photoshoot that wasn’t later retouched
“Do I travel in Private Jets all the time – of course I don’t – I have an EasyJet Plus Card. Does my face look like this all the time? Of course it doesn’t – normally I have just spent an hour in the MAC Pro artist chair having my make-up done for a shoot or event. Is it real? Well it is and it isn’t – that’s why, in a way, they are ‘good lies’.”
Pictured: US road trip? More like the Five Mile Road...
Even the video’s release date played into that jealousy-invoking deception. Released today, it comes at a time marking the end of summer, when most are back at their desks and enviously flicking through social media feeds, dreaming of their next getaway.
“We love escapism, we love to drift in an out of our personal consciousness when we are scrolling through feeds, imagining how wonderful it would be to be in those beautiful places. We admire, tick, love heart the vivid colours, poignant messages, images and lives…The truth be told, we don’t care at all about ‘good lies’. In fact, we’re fuelling it.”
Tallia’s ascent to social media stardom began after she left a CD of her singing with Elton John’s partner, David Furnish. Since then, she’s enjoyed a good deal of success with this new single already having reached 900,000 plays on Spotify.
Pictured: The best of friends - as of five minutes ago...
While London-based, she is no stranger to the island. Her mother is Jersey-based fashion publicist Tessa Hartmann CBE, who recently organised the inaugural Jersey Style Awards in a bid to put the island on the global fashion map.
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