Camila Cabello Joins Stromae in Silly ‘Love Island’-Themed ‘Mon Amour’ Video
We have the Met Gala to thank for this cross-cultural, tropical bop. After meeting at the star-studded event earlier this year, Stromae and Camila Cabello — who has long been a fan of the visionary Belgian musician — decided to collaborate on a reimagined version of his song, “Mon Amour.”
Accompanying the updated tune, which features Cabello’s silly verse about feeling wild and free post-breakup, is its Love Island-inspired video, which follows the two stars — along with eight other bachelors and single ladies — as they try to find love. Cue the fights, makeout sessions, pool parties, and… paranormal activity?
“Twenty-something/First time I’m free/This summer I belong to me,” Cabello sings. (We think we know what that’s referring to.) “‘Cause that new Bad Bunny made a bad girl out me/Give me that reggaetón, give me party, party.”
The video centers around the shenanigans of a character named Quentin, who gets into a fight with his newfound love. Stromae previously told Rolling Stone the song is about a cheating man who “every time he’s in a relationship, he fucks everything up.”
After getting caught cheating, Quentin’s infidelity transforms the paradise-filmed villa into a drama-filled nightmare. (It’s unclear, but Cabello might play the female embodiment of Karma.) By the end of the video, everyone in the villa mysteriously disappears — except for Quentin, who ends up alone.
“Far from disliking or mocking reality TV, [the video] serves as a perfect prism to sublimate the human comedy that is played out in Stromae’s lyrics,” says Stromae’s brother and producer Luc Van Haver in a statement. “In these candidates, there is a bit of each of us.”
Cabello has been manifesting a song with Stromae for quite some time. While visiting France in 2017, Cabello shared her love for the singer-songwriter during a radio appearance. “I know he’s not French, but I love Stromae,” she said before singing along to his tracks “Tous les Mêmes” and “Formidable.” “I love him.” (There’s also a video of her manifesting the crossover in 2015, while she was still in Fifth Harmony.)
The French-English song is Cabello’s first release since dropping her newest album, Familia, in June, which featured songs like “Don’t Go Yet” and “Hasta Los Dientes.”
“I just tapped into really being vulnerable and really being honest. And talking about things that I have gone through and that I never spoke about before was really healing for me,” she told Rolling Stone. “It just made me so much more open and vulnerable in my friendships, and then in my performances, and then in my interviews. It had this domino effect on every other area of my life.”
As for Stromae, the original version of “Mon Amour” was featured on Multitude, which dropped in February. The album marked his first full-length release since 2013’s Racine Carrée. “With Racine Carrée, I remember working until 7 a.m. Suffering,” Stromae told Rolling Stone. “Now I know that I don’t need to suffer to create good songs.”
“Mon Amour” is the latest single from Multitude, following the empowering “Fils de Joie” in March and “L’enfer,” which found Stromae confronting his former struggles with suicidal ideation.
