Leona Lewis - Happy

Leona Lewis - Happy @ Yahoo! Video


In Leona Lewis' latest single 'Happy', the message that comes across, through the lyrics and video, is that you have to take chances in life. This particular song is on about relationships more so than any other kind of life experiences and so throughout the video we are made to think that the main male featured in it and Leona are getting on more than they actually are. We, as an audience, follow through with Leona in this particular experience and see it through from beginning to end so we understand and relate better to the artist. In the lyrics it says 'so what if it hurts me?' and then later ''cause I'm just trying to be happy' which can be shown through the narrative type video from when the audience are meant to see some 'chemistry' between them from the beginning. The ending is a bit deceiving though, as through the middle of the video we see Leona trying on a white dress and then someone (we presume is the mother) places a flower in her hair, we begin to think that things progressed between the male and Leona and they are now getting married. This links to the beginning on the video as it starts with a couple-of-seconds clip, where a face/mid-shot of Leona is shown as confetti, or something similar, blows over and around her and there is a shot of the cake being cut.

When we see shots of the wedding environment near to the end, we can only see the back of a person in a wedding dress who we presume is Leona, however when the guy asks the bride to dance, she turns around and is revealed as somebody else and that, Leona, is in actual fact a bridesmaid by the looks of it along with her friend from the beginning of the video. This links to the lyrics by saying you need to take chances and sometimes not worry about the consequences otherwise you get nowhere and can stay unhappier for longer.

In the video there are numerous short clips, none lasting more than 6 seconds or so and consist of close-ups, mid-shots, and long shots. The use of these various ideas work well within the video as for the close-ups we generally see the emotions across her face, the mid-shots when shes singing and the long shots to show the others involved in the video. Additionally the lip synchronisation to the music works wells and fits perfectly, as you would expect from a professional music video, but also generally it is the smaller notes we 'see' her singing rather than the really big ones so it doesnt almost 'bore' the video. Furthermore, a range of locations are used throughout the video for example, the wedding scene, getting ready for the wedding, the streets and the bar where we follow 'their' unexpected meetings.

One thing to notice though, is the clothes worn by the actors used and Leona, they look more lower class than middle class and this can deinitely be shown by her room and her 'house' (presumably) as it looks a bit 'run down', this could link back to the story to say no matter where you're from you still need to take chances and love can happen wherever you are.