




British singer, Birdy, released the music video to her song Wings in 2013. Birdy is young singer and songwriter who began writing at age of 8. (officialbirdy.com) She has created several interesting music videos throughout the years and her songs are all  from the perspective of a girl growing up. This song in particular voices many of our ideas about how we perceive growing up to be, reminiscing on adventures, enjoying life, and letting our minds be free. The video corresponds to the song in an different way than you would expect but together, they create a strangely but genuine look on youthfulness, happiness and the vulnerability of growing up and living free. 

This video starts off by panning through a victorian style room with young people sleeping or passed out on the furniture with Birdy laying on the sofa. Everyone in the room is dressed in pale dresses and suits but they aren’t the usual dress. They’re outdated and classical than what we would see on youth today. Although everyone else’s attire is dull, Birdy’s outfit is bright red. Though the longshot view of the room is zoomed out, you can see where she is plainly, this make sense since she’s the main viewpoint of the video. Our eyes go directly to her. Their outfits and the room sort of give off a masquerade ball type feel but the warm tones, the vintage look of the house, and the way the people’s bodies are stiff and rigid makes you almost uncomfortable. The colors in the air of the scene almost feel stale and dead. During the audio of the opening it’s just instrumentation, so there isn’t much to associate with at the time. 

A close up shot of her as she sings the first verse of the song reveals the aforementioned bright red dress. It almost resembles roman armour, which doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of everyone else’s attire. Of course this isn't full body armour, but the colors are very similar to what romans would wear and the breastplate looks strikingly similar. If we do look at her dress as armour we could almost connect this as her protection for growing up. In her biography on her webpage, she talks a lot about how her songs reflect her experience of how growing up was and that it was very scary and different for her, so it seems fitting that this red breast plated dress is her way of saying that she needed protection during this time.  

In these next scenes, she is joined outside by all of the pale, masked, and differently dressed people. They all seem to be giving off very blank expressions directed towards Birdy. The lyrics here are “We watch the day go by, stories of all we did, it made me think of you. It made me think of you.” In the first picture on the left, there looks to be a woman in a wedding gown, a magician, and a woman with some sort of strange hat. These are very strange to be in a scene together. But if you look at the scene to the right, you see two people who look like they’re in modern clothes. Since her lyrics state “we watch the day go by, stories of all we did,” could these figures represent the memories she replays throughout her lifetime of growing up? Perhaps she has witnessed a wedding or been to a magic show, and maybe the two modern figures are just her recent friends. 

This next scene is a very happy and exciting image. Her and all of the outrageously dressed people have all come together and are dancing and mingling. There are more colors, yellows, pinks, purples, and though they are small introductions they make the whole image brighter and happier. Instead of the blank stares they are smiling and laughing and here is when you can truly get a sense of the youth being brought into the song. Here she is also reciting the chorus “Oh lights go down, In the moment we're lost and found. I just wanna be by your side, if these wings could fly. Oh damn these walls. In the moment we're ten feet tall and how you told me after it all we'd remember tonight for the rest of our lives.” The mixture of young people laughing and dancing along with words such as “in the moment we’re ten feet tall,” brings back any memories you have or of the experiences you wish to have as a child. You’re in the moment and you’re enjoying every minute of it just like the people in this video. 

In my opinion, this is possibly one of the most significant scenes. What other way to signify freedom that on horseback galloping through a field? Unlike a lot of the other scenes, this one is bright and wild and free. You still have all of the elements of the video; the people, the attire, the concentration, but you can really feel the freedom in this scene. Here the chorus is being sang again and the meaning of being young and being in the moment is iterated again.

Throughout the entire song and video, we see the journey through growing up. With the contrasting bright and dull colors we can see the shift from childhood to adulthood and the anxieties of getting older. We are all joined by our memories in the end and though growing up can be exhausting and terrifying, we must take our past and keep moving forward and not let our memories cage us.



 