Matvey Cherry’s latest music video is an ode to queer self-expression

Relentlessly upbeat, the latest music video for Russian avant-pop singer Matvey Cherry is a bold expression of what it means to be queer.

Created for his latest track “Superhero”, the clip sees the artist dressed in red leather amid hypnotic autotuned vocals and a chiptune-inspired beat. For Cherry, the video seeks to be “visually eccentric and bold” to “evoking feelings of the pride and art that is queer performance”.

Set on the streets of New York, the clip was directed by Bryan Berrios, a Venezuelan filmmaker known for his work with artists of the likes of Dua Lipa and Phoebe Bridgers. “Superhero” is part of Cherry’s new EP For I’m a Demon, inspired by the artist’s fixation with death and vision of himself as an intriguing, but also heroic character.

“One of my favorite poets, Charles Baudelaire, extolled Satan in a creative, not religious sense. He admired him as a symbol, a cultural concept, not as a deity,” Cherry told The Calvert Journal. “I know that to many people I seem fascinated by the idea of death. When I write and sing songs, I do not distinguish between these worlds [life and death]. Sometimes I’m just a vulnerable weirdo, sometimes I’m a brave superhero.“

For I’m a Demon is the artist’s second EP, following his 2018 debut Attention Whore. Originally from Yekaterinburg, Cherry was granted political asylum in the United States after suffering homophobic attacks in Russia, and is currently based in New York City.