Jihae Launches Official Music Video for 'Utopia'

Jihae (SUCCESSION, MARS, MORTAL ENGINES) has released the music video for her latest single "Utopia." The track is self-produced, mixed by Dave Harrington (Darkside), with Didi Gutman (Brazilian Girls) on synth and bass, Shahzad Ismaily on piano and beats, Avi Bortnick on guitar and Susan Mandel on cello.

Jihae created the music video with famed director Paola Kudacki who has directed videos for the Foo Fighters and photographed covers for Rolling Stone, Time, Elle, and Vogue. Jeffrey Kim (SOLO - A STAR WARS STORY) served as cinematographer, with Mark Elliott producing. The video was filmed in East Hampton at the Walking Dunes, the bay at Gerard Drive, and additional locations in the surrounding area.

Jihae hopes that the song's message of love and unity can help calm the current climate of hate and division. She says about the accompanying video: "The video represents my internal journey over the past year. The long process of rewrites to make the song uplifting mirrored my determination to find inner peace. It's not easy to face our reality without anger, frustration, and despair. I made the choice to stop being consumed by these emotions and focus on how I can contribute to healing our planet and helping people in these desperate times. We're wired to seek euphoria externally, running away from ourselves to find meaning and fill the void when sages, saints, and scholars throughout history have shown us that all the wisdom, peace, and light can be found within through meditation and prayer. I had shot with Paola before and have always admired her ability to capture her subject's essence in raw moments."

Cinematographer Jeffrey Kim notes, "From the very first listen, I was struck by the beauty of the track. It transported me to a calm and hopeful space that felt comforting and needed during these turbulent times in which we are living. Through Paola's vision, we captured Jihae in remote locations to express this idea of nature being at once vast and mysterious yet beautiful and utopia being a state of being which one must actively progress towards."

Kudacki adds, "This video portrays the journey of a woman dreaming of Utopia. In her search, she encounters frustration and desperation until she realizes that the true search is within herself. At the end she enters a portal, a new dimension, perhaps her own soul? Her inner world of happiness. The golden light. Her true self. I wanted to explore the idea of acceptance and tolerance and the constant search for happiness. A search that can only be found inside our minds and our hearts. When we filmed the performance, we all felt moved by Jihae's honest and emotional delivery. This song is definitely a point of conversation regardless of who you are, where you are from, and what you wish for the future."

Jihae's impressive career continues to blossom from the inspirational character that she is. She has received notable credits worldwide and for both her music and acting career leading to coverage from NME, Rolling Stone, The View, MTV, Variety, and much more.

A portion of the proceeds of the song and Utopia Lyric T-shirt will go to Earthday.org for their Canopy Project to reforest our planet. For more information please visit www.jihae.com

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