Video Premiere: Allison Iraheta’s Halo Circus Make Powerful Statement in ‘Desire (Lo Que Vale La Pena)’
Allison Iraheta – who first captured the nation’s attention seven years ago on American Idol, when she was only 16 – has made her greatest artistic statement yet, with her rock band Halo Circus’s new bilingual alternative song and video, “Desire (Lo Que Vale La Pena).” Yahoo Music is honored to premiere the video today.
Shot guerilla-style by legendary director Nick Egan (Duran Duran, the Clash, INXS, Oasis), the video is inspired by Iraheta’s proud Salvadoran heritage and her childhood in South Central L.A., with the singer wearing a pageant-style “IMMIGRANT” sash as she strolls past the historic murals of Rowena Gardens and Boyle Heights and the street art of Downtown Los Angeles. The song, whose parenthetical title means “what it all comes down to is desire,” features a sample of Oscar Romero, a Catholic priest from El Salvador who was assassinated and often rallied against social injustice.
"Three years ago, we were shooting a video in our garage,” Iraheta tells Yahoo Music. “Now, to be working with Nick Egan on our first official release is insane. Nick is a true artist and can punch you in the face with beauty that you didn’t even realize was there.”
Says Egan: “The great thing about working with Halo Circus is they like doing things differently from other bands. It’s all about the idea for them, and not about how they look. I find too many bands are obsessed with the way they look above how their music sounds. Initially I had a few ideas that focused on the amazing influence Latinos have had on American pop culture, a celebration.
“But as I started to film, I realized that it was more interesting to wonder what was going on in Allison’s head as she walked through the housing projects of East L.A. I felt it should be more personal and for her to both project and internalize at the same time by singing in her head and occasionally pulling the viewer into her world when it suited her: moving with her in and out of shadows, raw and real but poetic and vulnerable. It only dawned on me after the first edit, so I literally started from scratch. I wanted to make it feel like one take. She is one of the few performers that can and did pull that off.“
To celebrate the release of “Desire,” Halo Circus is offering the “’Desire’ Premiere Bundle” free to fans via BitTorrent. The song that produced by Iraheta’s husband and bandmate Matthew Hager (who before forming Halo Circus worked with Scott Weiland, Mandy Moore, Duran Duran, and others) and was mixed by Grammy-winner Craig Bauer (Kanye West, Smashing Pumpkins, Ed Sheeran). Click HERE to download the bundle.
