Hormones fly in Girl Next Door

No, 'Girl Next Door’ is not about a teenage boy who falls in love with the girl next door only to find out that she’s a former porn star. That’s the plot of an ancient teen drama only people born in the 1800s would know.

Sauti Sol and Tiwa Savage offer the story of a man and woman who live in the same apartment complex and fall in love. They’re both smitten. If you’re familiar with chick flicks you’d immediately recognise the typical chilling-on-the-bed-and-staring-at-the-ceiling-while-thinking-about-my-potential-lover trope. Except that Tiwa Savage looks stunning in her camouflage dungaree and olive top – she is ready to go to war for love after reciting hat seeems like a mirror-on-the-wall speech.

While the girl next door exits her apartment, after getting a speech from her parents presumably about how bad the boy next door is for her, the boy next door looks through the blinds and they walk downstairs in unison. In slow motion, to add intensity to the moment, the young couple finally get to be with each other and possibly jump into each other’s “deep ends”. Most of the slow motion in the video gives the viewer a sense anticipation in the moment the couple meets.

The high, oblique aerial shots further give the impression that love is in the air, which makes the video warm and jovial.

The use of everyday elements such as a children playing in the streets and apartments as opposed to a mansion, anchor the video in a reality that can easily be imagined by the viewer; it doesn’t conform to a classic fairy-tale stereotype where the rich character falls in love with the pauper.

The familiarity of the video is so intense you’d fall in love with an imaginary boyfriend or girlfriend just to have a sense of what the couple on screen feels. Although it doesn’t imitate fairy-tale stereotypes, the couple lives happily ever after, in a club, dancing.

Artist: Sauti Sol ft Tiwa Savage
Video: Girl Next Door
Label, Year: Sauti Sol Entertainment, 2018