She might be the last artist to have released their music video for Eurovision 2020, but Albania’s Arilena Ara has shown that she’s saved the best for last. With the release of the “Fall From the Sky” music video, Arilena is inviting viewers into the cool, dramatic world of her Eurovision 2020 song.
The music video takes its cue from the “Fall From the Sky” song lyrics, which explore the emotional torment of a woman trapped in a seemingly abusive relationship.
We see Arilena in three different settings. All are lit with the same cool blue light — it clearly establishes that this is not a warm, cosy world for the character Arilena is portraying.
In the first setting, Arilena is dressed in a classic white suit jacket and is next to a piano. But most importantly — she never gets to play the piano. Arilena sits next to it, she stands on top of it, she idly runs her finger along its keys, but she never has the opportunity to sit down and play it.
This suggests that the bad relationship is oppressing her so much that playing music has become a low priority. Rather, by standing on the piano, she has taken the musical instrument and turned it into a platform to strengthen and empower herself.
The second setting might be familiar to fans of VICTORIA’s “Tears Getting Sober” video. It too features a gnarled old tree, but Arilena’s tree is painted white and is presented in a more stylistic sense.
In the tree scenes, Arilena is casually dressed in a casual white hoodie. Things are getting more dramatic with the tree. As well as singing the song, Arilena also strikes a number of poses, includes expressions of pain and torment. This is not a happy place.
The third setting takes inspiration from the avian themes of the song lyrics: “Fall from the sky / Always making me hold back my wings / When I’m destined to fly”. In this section, Arilena is found in a human-size birdcage, imprisoning her.
But in these scenes Arilena brings a strong, wild anger. She’s wearing a white moto jacket and her hair is big and curly — and there’s a sense that she’s fed up and ain’t gonna take it much longer. While she is imprisoned in a cage, her emotions can’t be contained.
The video ends on a subdued note, but it doesn’t leave Arilena as a helpless victim.
Arilena Ara – “Fall from the Sky” music video
What do you think of the “Fall From the Sky” video? Would you like to see Arilena represent Albania at Eurovision in the future? Tell us your thoughts below.
Great video fitting the song! Arilena is stunning!
I really like the concept of the video. Could this also mean that the Albanian double headed eagle is destined to fly. I quite like the message here. She may not be flying to Rotterdam this year but Arilena looks and sounds amazing In the video.
Wouldn’t you know it? The video hits the Web AFTER I’m finished evaluating the entire roster for the 3rd and final time.
As it is, I watched this once, and the scores I gave it were the same as that of her stage performance of “Shaj” at the Festivali i Këngës, which I used for my video score. Combined with the score I gave for the revamped song, she still would not have qualified on my card.
Unpopular opinion: Arilena looks absolutely stunning dressed in white and I like this concept more than the “black Shaj” one. It shows vulnerability, smooth and elegance both in the instrumentalisation and in the way she sings and performs. The song delivers so many emotions. And it’s my biggest grower: “Fall From The Sky” is my 16th place now at the end of the season ^^
I don’t even get the styling she got for her FiK performance. Granted, 100% of what we saw from that stage don’t really survive the move to ESC, among other things.
But still, surely it had to look pleasing for TV so I dont know why they opted to make Arilena look like a spandex dominatrix with spikes growing out from one of her shoulders.
Because she looked stunning? Say what you want about the NS staging, but her look was everyhting, and the most memorable aspect of her final performance. Not every ballad has to be performed in a gown you know.
Not necessarily a gown but she definitely looked better with the one she wore with the two long black gloves for her FiK publicity photos and VT/postcard.
This music video is so bad, I’m sorry. The colour grading and editing done by whoever was in charge got it incredibly wrong, resulting in Arilena looking 100% saturated at some points and very green-screen is. Whoever was in charge needs to get fired, since they seem to know nothing about good videography.
Am glad that she got her video out. It looked great!