Rebecca Black started the week on Monday with a YouTube explosion and ended it on Friday with a Good Morning America interview. We don’t know what the future holds specifically for Miss Black (other than for her, Sunday is two days afterwords), but we can muse about which of the Ark Music Factory stable might have similar stardom in her future.
Well, I’ve done an appraisal of everything AMF has to offer and actually take great pleasure in directing your attention to Miss Alana Lee (Full name: Alana Lee Hamilton) and her first song and video, “Butterflies”. Unlike “Friday”, which is undeniably its own kind of catchy song, “Butterflies” actually combines a pretty solid lyric, a fun and heartfelt vocal performance, and the kind of catchy tune that lets you take multiple listens and not feel guilty about it.
Furthermore, the writer and director of the video really should take a bow. I know it’s fashionable to make fun of AMF (and they do deserve some of that criticism) but in the video for “Butterflies”, they’ve managed to tell a very sweet little story that perfectly matches the song and Alana Lee’s winning performance. If “Friday” and Rebecca Black is a showcase of AMF’s ability to get noticed, “Butterflies” and Alana Lee is a great sign of what they’re capable when they’re on the top of their pop song craft game.
If you haven’t seen the video yet, watch it first and then read on for the rest of our review:
I could easily see this being a well-deserved radio hit.
As for the video, it tells the story of a girl desperate to get noticed by the object of her affection, a boy she spends lots of time with inside and outside of class, but frustratingly can’t seem to make any progress with. Her situation is even more gloomy what with the presence of the ultra-pretty classmate that the boy seems to like more than her.
And just when life for Alana seems at its worst, it gets even worser! (Is that a word?) Passing a note to her best friend, doubtlessly full of details about her lovelorn situation, she is totally busted by her no-nonsense teacher and summoned to the front of the class. Hand it over young lady! (This happened to me more than once in school and it is no fun!)
Next is one of the best parts of the song (and I’m being serious, here!), an appearance by the ubiquitous AMF rapper Pato (you’ve gotta read this Starcasm exclusive on him). Whereas in “Friday”, Pato’s presence is a little bizarre and out of place, here he appears in a sort of Grease/”Teen Angel” vision that influences Miss Lee to make her big move. He tells her a story about how when he was her age, he felt exactly the same “butterflies” for another girl, and that everyone has gone through the exact same things she’s going through.
That poignant moment is followed by the wonderful visual of Alana taking the note from her grim looking teacher and handing it directly to the boy of her dreams, accompanied by a burst of the very hooky chorus to the song: “You give me butterflies deep inside/You give me butterflies/I don’t know where to run, run, run, run from you!” What can the boy do but have his heart melt? Even the big bad teacher senses what’s up and gives her a respectful nod for making the big play.
And to show that there are happy endings, they walk away holding hands, the note on his desk reading “You give me butterflies!”
Alana Lee’s acting performance portrays a sweetness and vulnerability that comes across as very real and very relatable for anyone watching. We here at Starcasm love a good pop song, and Alana Lee has definitely provided us one.
So what we have here is a great song, a great performance, and a great video. After “Friday”, who’d thunk AMF was capable of such a trifecta? Starcasm was the first to point a light at Alana Lee and now we’re going to take the extra step and give her song and video two very big thumbs up!
Here’s the lyrics to Alana Lee’s “Butterflies”:
From the early days
I saw your face boy
You told me a line
I knew you were shy
This is what we do
You don’t have to be ashamed
Cause we’re holding hands walking in the hallways
You give me butterflies deep inside
You give me butterflies
I don’t know where to run, run, run from you
So I gotta say you give me butterflies deep inside
You give me butterflies
I don’t know what to do, do, do without you
Boy, you give me butterflies
I get lost sometimes when you act like a fool
You ignore my words and I can’t get over you
This is what we do everyday
I’m in my room on the phone with you
All night long
You give me butterflies deep inside
You give me butterflies
I don’t know where to run, run, run from you
So I gotta say you give me butterflies deep inside
You give me butterflies
I don’t know what to do, do, do without you
Boy, you give me butterflies
You give me butterflies deep inside
You give me butterflies
I don’t know where to run, run, run from you
So I gotta say you give me butterflies deep inside
You give me butterflies
I don’t know what to do, do, do without you
Boy, you give me butterflies
