Watch Christina Grimmie's Posthumous ‘Snow White’ Video Premiere
Back in February — four months before she was tragically gunned down by a deranged fan during an Orlando autograph signing — Voice/YouTube star Christina Grimmie was working on the visual EP Side A, accompanied by four music videos in a series called The Ballad of Jessica Blue. Today, the first of those videos, the six-and-a-half-minute “Snow White,” makes its posthumous premiere via Billboard.
The video, which the depicts the 22-year-old singer struggling with her art and love life while contemplating what at the time seemed to be her wide-open future, makes for compelling but extremely bittersweet viewing.
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Last month, Grimmie’s manager, Brian Teefey (stepfather of Selena Gomez), posted the following message on Facebook, explaining his late client’s final creative endeavor:
“August will be a visual celebration of Side A, we have a four part mini-series of music videos for the Side A EP titled ‘The Ballad of Jessica Blue.’ This story follows Jessica Blue through the songs ‘Snow White,’ ‘ Anybody’s You,’ ‘Deception,’ and Without Him’ on her journey to find her voice and her path in life only to find they are one in the same. Christina shot these videos back in February with about six hours of choreography and four days of filming before she left for the ‘WildFire’ tour. Everyone worked so hard on this project putting in extra long days on set to ensure we got the best quality project we could for the minimal budget we had. I couldn’t be more proud of her and everyone involved for the labor of love that was put into this project.”
Today, Teefey went into more detail about “Snow White,” posting:
“The ‘Ballad of Jessica Blue’ is retro styled narrative and music video short film. The story follows a young girl’s journey into self-discovery through her love life, her womanhood and her music. ‘Jessica’ is at a crossroads in her life. She becomes suspicious of her boyfriend and is gripped by insecurities only to realize that she is doing more damaged to her own heart and future than any relationship ever could. Jessica has an upcoming showcase where she hopes to prove to herself and others that her music is as strong as her desire to be great. With the showcase days away she can’t seem to put together her set or her songs. Jessica is torn between boyfriend issues, her creative issues and a general feeling of self-doubt. She confides in the people closest to her and they all give her words of wisdom along her path of self-discovery. Her beloved grandmother reminds her that all the security, strength and love she needs is in that powerful voice on the other side of her heart. Jessica finds her path by doing what she loves. She sings from her heart.”
Billboard will premiere a new The Ballad of Jessica Blue video each week, starting with this week’s “Snow White.” In the meantime, check out a performance taped at Yahoo Music last fall by Christina and her brother Marcus Grimmie (who, incidentally, was present at Christina’s June 10 murder and tackled her assailant at the scene).
