Magic happens when an artistic music video backs up an already captivating track. Such is the case of Tei Shi’s newest black-and-white “¿QUIÉN TE MANDA?” video, premiering exclusively on Remezcla today (June 15).

Sonically, the song incorporates glitches and other experimental sounds to give it an “odd sounding minimalistic” concept on top of drums inspired by Timbaland, Missy Elliot, and Britney Spears’ Y2K era. As for the lyrics, the Colombian-Canadian singer-songwriter jotted down the bilingual verses, which helped the track come together “piece by piece.” 

However, the visuals added a more significant touch to the track, pushing it to the next level. “The video came together over the course of almost six months. It was an idea Jonatán [the video’s film director] and I started discussing last fall—how could we make something very minimal and with a very limited budget, but that would feel beautiful and classic and strong?” she tells Remezcla.

The result ended up being a cinematic vignette video featuring her dancing ballet at the handball courts in Venice Beach, CA. The alluding choreography was curated by Teresa “Toogie” Barcelo, who makes part of the artist’s all-Latine video production team. During the music video, she carries a scythe-type of weapon, which adds more edge to her innovative track. She performs throughout the visuals, enthralling the audience with a modern dance that mixes classic ballet moves and sensuality with her tasteful moves. Other notable highlights are her expressive facial features; her wardrobe (which was styled by Kat Typaldos and inspired by Ruven Afanador’s art); and the way she gracefully dances with the long curved blade, showing an unconventional type of elegance.

Choosing ballet was intentional; it’s a dance she’s practiced since she was three. During the pandemic, she reconnected with this artistic side of her, which helped her express her roots and identity. Another way of reconnecting is through her lyrics, though this was not intentional. “I’ve released songs entirely in Spanish and entirely in English but not really in Spanglish,” she shares. “Spanglish is the reality of how a lot of us bilingual immigrant kids and families communicate. I didn’t do this intentionally or consciously, but it’s something that was happening more as I started writing the EP.”

Moreover, though the video appears done in a simple manner, there was a lot that went on behind-the-scenes to make it happen. The original video was ruined, but that didn’t stop Tei Shi from giving it another go. “I do think we far out-did ourselves the second time shooting it, and I think everyone working on the video had this mindset about it, which was really amazing to see. Everyone really poured their time and energy into this video in such a loving and dedicated way and really went the extra mile, the fact that we were able to reshoot at all was incredible–it never happens,” she says. 

“¿QUIÉN TE MANDA?” is part of Tei Shi’s BAD PREMONITION EP, which came out on March 17.

Watch the new video for “¿QUIÉN TE MANDA?” below.