Montreal Women Are The Stars Of This Powerful New Music Video For A Feminist Anthem

MissMe is a fast and animated speaker, her fervour palpable, as she talks of unicorn sharks, female empowerment and astrophysics. Well-known around the world for her art (even Madonna bought some), the Swiss-born, Montreal-based artist, or 'artful vandal' as she's called, is a notoriously fierce feminist who makes use of the female anatomy in her work — a display of her passion for gender equality. 

The masked artist has been all over the world in her balaclava, letting her wheatpasting speak for itself in cities around the globe.

Now, for the first time, she's ventured into new territory: directing music videos, as a collaboration with the Montreal-band Random Recipe for their track "Hey Boy."

And she enlisted real Montreal women to star in the powerful production.

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"Everybody on this project is from Montreal," MissMe told MTL Blog. 

In the video, MissMe infuses her distinct flair into Random Recipe's lyrics.

The lyrics, seemingly directed at men, describe the everyday realities of women of all colours and creeds.

"So many women feel the same rage and feel the same pain in all those different backgrounds, different ethnicities and different ages," said MissMe.

"There is still something that [deeply] needs to change."

The video took Instagram by storm last week — and has now racked up over 70,000* views and hundreds of comments.

The cast of diverse, badass women of all ages, sexual orientations, ethnicities and genders paint a vivid portrait of solidarity across generations.

[rebelmouse-image 26883143 photo_credit="MissMe" expand=1 original_size="1024x768"] MissMe

"We made it a duty to reach out to as many womxn we know, without limits or boundaries, and have them participate in this project collectively," said Random Recipe's Frannie Holder and Fab in an email statement.

The featured women, their faces free of makeup and unapologetic in expression, dance alongside MissMe’s 'vandals' in front of a black-and-white, graffitied backdrop.

"We told them, 'There will be no make up on set. We want you As You Are!' It was time that the public eye [saw] the image of Womxn as a strong, intellectual, brave, colourful [and] organic mosaic," said Holder and Fab's statement.

[rebelmouse-image 26883144 photo_credit="MissMe" expand=1 original_size="768x1024"] MissMe

MissMe outlined the concept for the video’s production.

Her direction creates a clear gradient as the track goes on, eventually culminating in a patchwork of splashy intersectionality.

"The idea was to . . . start with a pretty simple, white, asepticized aesthetic,” she said.

"And slowly, you bring the black into it. Then it becomes my black and white world, which is the world where we are unapologetically ourselves."

[rebelmouse-image 26883145 photo_credit="MissMe" expand=1 original_size="768x1024"] MissMe

These strong Montreal women are putting our beloved city on the map in a progressive way.

And while that might be new territory for Random Recipe, they show no regret for their fearless messaging.

"We are rarely this explicit in our feminism in lyrics," their statement said.

"But if we are gonna write it black on white, we will be bold about it."

*This article has been updated.