VIDEOCLIP: IMMEDIATE AND METAPHORICAL STORYTELLING: Examples in Tamino Amir's videoclips

written by: Gisella.

Over the years, music videos have evolved from simply translating music into images to having their own story, telling stories through literary and cinematic references and meticulous attention to detail.

The first music videos date back to 1940 with the appearance of Panorama Soundie, which featured a vast repertoire of three-minute clips called "soundies."

But it wasn't until 1970 that music videos established themselves as a means of communication and entertainment, revolutionizing pop and rock music. In the 1990s, they reached more elaborate forms, thanks in part to the use of digital effects.

Music videos often reference popular culture: literary works, films, or myths, and this is precisely the case with the artist we're about to discuss.

Tamino Amir Moharam Fouad, known professionally as Tamino, is a Belgian-Egyptian singer-songwriter born in 1996. His songs and music videos blend European culture with the sounds and colors of the Arab world. His debut album, Amir, is a perfect introduction to what will become his artistic style.

His brother, Ramy Moharam Fouad, a 23-year-old photographer and director, creates his videos, album covers, and much more. Despite his young age, he already has a distinct style.

The two brothers have often stated that they work very well together, and that their determination has always led them to achieve the best results.

In a 2018 interview with Knack Focus, the youngest declared:

Together we can't do anything bad, I truly believe that. We don't give up until everything feels right."

And they certainly proved it with their first music video together: Cigar (2017). Rami was only 16 years old and he revealed his awe at working with older people, but that didn't stop him from producing a video rich in meaning and already a taste of what his style was going to be.

In the videoclip for "Cigar," the first parallel to be drawn is certainly that with Van Gogh's famous painting "Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette," which in the music video we see come to life as a metaphor for death, wandering through various parts of the city at night, approaching those who seem to have lost all hope, sucked into life, which now leaves them without strength.

Through the dark but well-defined images we are transported into an almost dreamlike dimension, which leads us to explore our unconscious, among doubts and fears, personified by a skeleton that tries to reach the souls that would like to escape him.

https://youtu.be/VFBwYKfnJw0 "Cigar" - music video

Another notable collaboration between the two brothers is "Persephone" (2018), a song that reinterprets the myth of Persephone and Hades, sublimely captured in the imagery seen in the music video.

The two wanted to present the myth in a "light" way, to balance the importance and depth of the lyrics and the story they represent.

Through the delicate black-and-white images, we see the story depicted for what it is: a dark, mythological tale, rich in passion, torn between possession and desire. Over the years, the myth has been reinterpreted and told in countless ways: Persephone kidnapped and starved, kidnapped but treated so lovingly by Hades that she falls in love with him. With this version, Tamino tells a delicate yet resolute tale, a love from someone perhaps incapable of love, from someone who destroys everything he touches. And to better convey this concept, I'd like to focus on the "I am fall" metaphor used in the song, a reflection born from a comment found right under the video:

@mareamammano7007 :

"How brilliant is the line 'I am your fall'?! It refers both to autumn (which begins on Earth when Persephone goes to the Underworld) and to the fall, because everything decays and goes below life, when Hades is there."

https://youtu.be/aeaBJfzTKl8 "Persephone - music video

Before moving to the songs from his latest album, Sahar, I'd like to focus on another track from the album, Amir: "Tummy," a 2018 track whose video was once again directed by his brother Ramy, this time with the help of director Bastiaan Lochs, who we'll often find directing other music videos.

This song tells the story of a living pharaonic statue, who lives his day in a literally statuesque manner, amidst the gazes and admiration of passersby.

But his peculiarity lies in the fact that every evening he tries to wash off all the golden glitter covering his body, the next morning he wakes up covered in the same glitter once again.

This image can undoubtedly be interpreted as a metaphor, a sort of inescapable circle. Ramy revealed that he was inspired by "Amir," the name of the album and Tamino's middle name. Amir means prince in Arabic, and a prince has no choice, he's born that way. And this also applies to musicians: you can't escape who you are.

Tamino said the video also draws heavily on his origins, not so much to talk about them, but rather to try to challenge the image people have when they discover he has Egyptian origins, immediately thinking of pyramids and pharaohs.

"There are actually very few pyramids in my music. When I think of my music, I think of the firqa, a Middle Eastern orchestra, which includes instruments like the oud and the ney, like the ones my grandfather, or Umm Kulthum, played.

Interview for Knack Focus, 2018

https://youtu.be/HB6JjgEubrk "Tummy" - music video

Moving on to his second and most recent album, Sahar, we can undoubtedly see growth, but at the same time, a style that remains unchanged, moving toward a path that Tamino seems to have clearly defined.

This second album also features many videos rich in meaning and references that you could discuss.

I've decided to focus on three of them. The first is "Sunflower ft. Angèle," a song inspired by the myth of the nymph Clytie and the god Apollo. In Greek mythology, the sunflower represents unrequited love, the melancholy combined with the dedication of the nymph Clytie, who has always been in love with Apollo.

But the inspiration for the music video isn't just the myth, but also Italo Calvino's short story, "The Distance of the Moon," which features a third "character"—the moon.

Calvino's "The Moon" is an extraordinary journey, from the suffering of unrequited love to the rediscovery of one's identity.

It's on the moon that one goes to get milk in "The Distance of the Moon" (Cosmicomics).

It's on the moon that two lovers lose their way. The moon, thus, becomes a refuge.

But it's also the place where one understands who one truly is.

And through the images of this video, once again directed by the duo Ramy Moharam Fouhad/Bastiaan Lochs together with Jonathan Van Hemelrijck the power of love is represented: the love that goes beyond physicality, the love that makes us care for each other despite obstacles and difficulties, despite rejection and suffering.

https://youtu.be/vO5Ma9NmM4w "Sunflower" - music video

Another video rich in metaphors is "You Don't Own Me," again directed by Bastiaan Lochs and Ramy Moharam Fouad.

Tamino explicitly stated that he drew inspiration for the lyrics from neurologist Viktor Frankl's book "Men's Search For Meaning" (1946), a collection of memoirs from his years spent in a concentration camp, about how such a brutal experience can destroy a person's humanity.

This song, like its video, can be adapted to any type of oppression—physical or psychological violence, or the sense of control one individual has over another.

Through its powerful imagery and warm, dark colors, "You Don't Own Me" conveys the frustration of feeling chained and the strength to break free.

It represents the difficulty we often have in prevailing, the difficulty of shaking off the image someone else may have formed of us.

https://youtu.be/g5QOqOK2fXE "You Don't Own Me" - music video

Another recurring inspiration in his work, particularly in the first single "The First Disciple" (2022), directed by Bastiaan Lochs & Jonathan Van Hemelrijck, which preceded the release of the new album, is the poet Khalil Gibran and his most famous work, "The Prophet" (1923).

The First Disciple recounts the fall of an idol, a prophet, and does so with powerful simplicity.

The lighting is low, the walls are covered in graffiti, and Tamino sits in the midst of a crowd playing the oud, a type of lute native to the Middle East.

The song can tell the artist's own story, the struggles of managing the attention he receives, of remaining true to himself, but at the same time it speaks to an idol, a prophet, blinded by his fame, who no longer recognizes the one who gave him loyalty and trust.

In this video too, we're accompanied by soft lighting, but in this case, we have large spaces, filled with people. Yet at the same time, the camera maintains individuality, almost as if it were a spotlight following the artist, who moves through the crowd, almost as if searching for a glimpse of normal life. A race that can also be seen as the need, despite everything, to constantly try to reach that source of inspiration that now seems to have turned its back.

https://youtu.be/Tf0MEW_Z9w8 "The first disciple" - music video