Cher Unveils Female-Fronted Video For ABBA ‘SOS’ Cover

Cher pays homage to original 1975 ABBA music video with the release of her new visual for her cover of the Swedish superstars’ ‘SOS’.

While the singer herself remains absent from the video, she’s recruited a female-fronted cast featuring Transparent and trans-actress Trace Lysette, Australian singer-songwriter Betty Who, comedian Sabrina Jalees and actress and singer Rumer Willis.

Directed by Jake Wilson, the video perfectly captures the camera theatrics of the original video, including plenty of dramatic zooming, slow pans and sepia-tinged lighting.

Wilson also previously helmed videos for Dua Lipa’s viral video for ‘New Rules’, Hayley Kiyoko’s ‘Curious’ and, more recently, Troye Sivan’s ‘Dance to This’.

While Cher only appears in the jukebox movie musical Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again for a brief period, clearly the pop supergroup has been her recent muse, with an upcoming album of covers Dancing Queen due 28 September, a recently announced Vegas residency and a tour to promote the album. The tour also marks the first time she’ll be extensively touring North America in five years and kicks off next January.

The star has even previously expressed her enthusiasm for ABBA in interviews saying, “I’ve always liked ABBA and saw the original Mamma Mia musical on Broadway three times.” Cher’s version and accompanying visual of the group’s lovelorn pop song turns it into an empowering anthem.

Despite the overall vintage aesthetic, the clip still manages to feel refreshingly modern and there’s enough wardrobe changes to fill Vogue’s September issue. The overall “girl-power” direction is thanks to its diverse cast that also includes actresses Aimee Carrero, Sas Goldberg (Ocean’s Eight) and Lauren Weedman (Looking), model Vivien James and TV writer Wolfie McCann Jalees (Search Party), among others.

‘SOS’ follows the pop diva’s campy rendition of ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)’ and two previous lyric videos.

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Format: UK English