Troye Sivan has dropped the second single from his upcoming album She’s the Best, and it comes with a cinematic video starring a knight in shining armor. The track, “Party,” samples Madonna’s No. 1 hit “Music” and arrives ahead of the record’s Oct. 9 release.
The electro-dance song was written by Sivan alongside Leland, Tyde Mellet (Sivan’s brother), Rob Feher, Kaelyn Behr, Elvira Anderfjärd, Tove Burman and Luka Kloser. Mellet, Feher, Behr and Sivan produced the track. It follows the album’s title track, “She’s the Best.”
Knight, Castle, Party
The video for “Party” was directed by Gordon von Steiner, who has worked with Sivan on several previous clips, including “Got Me Started,” “One of Your Girls” and “Rush.” That last video earned Grammy Award nominations for von Steiner and Sivan in the best music video category.
The video was filmed at a castle in Berkeley, England. It features choreographed dance sequences and plenty of bare skin, per the description. Sivan plays a knight in medieval times, and the cast engage in sword fighting, revelry and “sexy shenanigans.”
Sir Ian McKellen provides the opening voice-over narration. The actor first worked with Sivan when the singer was 14-years-old, in a production of Waiting for Godot in Perth.
“The conquest is nearly behind us. Fires blaze from one end of the realm to the other. And what is victory, if not celebrated? For at long last, a party.”
Queer Lineage
Sivan spoke about the concept behind the video on the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, where he explained the idea of tracing party culture across centuries.
“We both take partying quite seriously,” Sivan said of von Steiner, “it can be this very transcendent and almost spiritual experience… especially as queer people, I think that nightlife is often the first time that you find yourself in a space where you’re not the minority.”
“So we were talking about it and … we were like, ‘surely people have always partied in some capacity, and surely queer people have always partied in some capacity.’ And so it got us thinking: What would this party have looked like 100 years ago, 200 years ago? It just unlocked this whole feeling and world that was just so much fun to dig into.”
He also noted that McKellen’s involvement carried extra weight. “Sir Ian McKellen did the voice-over … and that was also important to me because it’s this idea of queer lineage and each generation setting the stage and showing the younger generation or the new generation: ‘this is where we gather and this is what we do, and this is one way to really connect with your community.’ I was so excited to ask him and so excited that he said yes.”
Comparison Table
| Element | “Party” Video |
|---|---|
| Setting | Medieval castle |
| Concept | Queer party culture traced back through history |
| Sample | Madonna’s “Music” |
| Voice-over | Sir Ian McKellen |
The video is a theatrical spectacle.
Source material: “Troye Sivan Releases Madonna-Sampling ‘Party’ Single & Cinematic Video: Watch,” Billboard.
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