In 2009, Yuna graduated from Universiti Teknologi MARA in Malaysia with a law degree. She’s pursued a different path since then, though, and with great success: She launched her music career before she finished school, and in recent years, she’s really broken out on an international level. Her most recent album, 2016’s Chapters, was critically acclaimed, features collaborations with Jhené Aiko and Usher, and peaked at No. 8 on the R&B charts. It’s been a few years since that album came out, but now she’s released something new: A video for her single, “Forevermore.”
Yuna shared a statement about the track, describing it as “a song that I wrote about coming from a small country, [how] I grew up in a small town and how that made me strive to be the best that I can be.” She also said the video is “a fantastical depiction of my childhood memories, told in a very stylistic way.” Her husband Adam Sinclair directed the clip, and she said working with him on it was “a very special experience.”
Watch the video for “Forevermore” above, and find Yuna’s full statement about the song and video below.
“‘Forevermore’ is a song that I wrote about coming from a small country, I grew up in a small town and how that made me strive to be the best that I can be. When I was young I couldn’t wait to leave and see the world, but that made me able to appreciate my hometown more. The music video is a fantastical depiction of my childhood memories, told in a very stylistic way. So we went back to Malaysia, and shot the entire music video in Kuala Lumpur, and Perlis where I grew up. It’s the smallest state up north which is the border of Thailand and Malaysia, and it is still so beautiful and untouched by modernization — which I love very much. It was a very special experience for me as the video was also directed by my husband, Adam Sinclair. Even though we were both from Malaysia but we were from different parts of the country, and Perlis was kind of foreign to him so he managed to capture the beauty of the most simplest things there. We both wanted to show Malaysia in a different way – not the way that you see in travel or tourism videos. We wanted to show some really pretty Malaysian things but also wanted some real and raw beauty of Malaysia. Like an old gas station (in contrast to a the multi-billion dollar petroleum company), an old small village grocery shop (in contrast to the high end shopping malls that keeps popping up around Malaysia),the first biggest stadium in Malaysia that is little bit rundown but the architecture is still one of the most amazing to me, the motorcycle culture that is often stigmatized by society — besides the fact that all these things, in a weird way meant something to me as a kid, I also felt that we never see them. While some of us are out here conditioned by the media to be famous, rich and powerful, maybe we shouldn’t forget about the simple, beautiful things in life.
I hope fans will feel empowered by ‘Forevermore,’ and enjoy the music video as much as I enjoyed making it with people back home.”
