Kelela Drops “idea 1” Single & Video

Visionary artist Kelela steps into a new world with her transcendent new single and video for “idea 1”

With “idea 1”, Kelela is back — and she’s brought a whole new world with her.

Produced by Oscar Scheller (PinkPantheress, Lily Allen), the track announces a new sonic and visual direction that expands on the immersive worlds Kelela has long been known for, while making clear that something significant is on the way.

Directed by 91 Rules (Erik Saltzman and Cameron Tidball-Sciullo), the video is an allegorical, otherworldly visual that conveys a reckoning with a woman at her breaking point, where breakthrough and breakdown collapse into one.

Raw yet surreal, it bends destruction into renewal and collapse into rebirth, shifting between slow deliberate intimacy and explosive release.

On Monday (April 6), Kelela gave her New York City fans an exclusive first look at the video at an intimate IRL screening in Soho, a preview of the world she is building before sharing it with everyone else.

Says Kelela: “‘idea 1’ is about what it feels like to exist in this climate — the weight of being expected to witness, absorb, and speak truth at a time when the world feels like it’s unraveling. That’s a particular kind of burden Black women know intimately. This song doesn’t offer answers, it just refuses to look away. Co-writing it with my best friend Janiva Ellis, hearing Oscar’s production give it shape, and then watching 91 Rules bring that tension to life visually feels like the beginning of a much larger conversation I’m ready to have.”

Audio:

Video:

Kelela’s “idea 1” track is also available now to stream and cop on all major digital streaming platforms