Sorry if you were misled into thinking this post would be about Celine. To me, the word “feelings” and “Celine Dion” are interchangeable and she owns them, all of them.
On the music charts though, and on social media, “Feelings”, specifically “In My Feelings” is all about Drake. The song is probably, at this point, the Song of Summer 2018, if we’re going by critical mass and momentum and chart performance and streams and all broadly recognised measures of success. Remember, this wasn’t originally Drake’s plan either. It happened because of Shiggy’s dance challenge and the resulting thousands upon thousands of videos in response. Which is why Shiggy features so prominently in Drake’s official video for “In My Feelings” released last night. Drake is giving credit, not just by including Shiggy but the video itself is mostly an homage to the dance and the people who participated. It’s watchable, fun, and has that hazy, lazy never-the-summer-be-over vibe that makes for a classic Song of Summer.
That said…my favourite part of the video comes at the beginning. Drake shows up at “Kiki’s”, played by La La Anthony. And the Phylicia Rashad comes out and tells him about himself. What’s hitting me here is the chemistry, the interaction. Drake’s a natural actor. A lot of these artists, when they try this kind of sh-t, I mean…you know. You’ve seen Zayn Malik. If you have not, help yourself. This is not Drake. Drake can deliver a line convincingly. His timing is excellent. It’s a small scene, I know. It’s not British-accented acting, but there’s a looseness to his performance that isn’t easy, that may even be underrated. I miss Drake’s acting. It obviously hasn’t been his focus. He’s said that, eventually, he’ll do it again. And he can afford to wait until something exactly right comes along. I hope it happens soon.
