Bully and bullied.
By KELLY PEDRO, THE LONDON FREE PRESS
As a child, London country singer Stacey Zegers was both teased and did the teasing.
Zegers, born with cataracts, wore thick-framed glasses as a child until she got contact lenses as a teenager.
“The reason I did the teasing was because I felt so out of place,” she said.
Zegers explores the world of bullying in her new song, Sunflower, and the powerful music video that accompanies it, released a week ago on YouTube.
London filmmaker Edward Platero, of Red Cat Films, got the idea for the video — meant to expose the vulnerable part of Zegers — less than two weeks ago.
“If you watch videos on TV now it’s all about indulgence, catering to the musician’s ego. You look at a video of Christina Aguilera all done up to the max. I thought it would be neat to take that concept and turn it on its head, so you take someone whose done up to the max and deconstruct it,” he said.
In the video, Zegers shows a picture of herself as a child — wearing her thick-rimmed glasses — and throughout the song she strips off hair extensions, fake eyelashes and eventually her make-up as she sings about a young girl who bullied another girl.
By the end of the song, the singer sees the young girl she bullied in a new way. The video ends with Zegers wearing her glasses and holding up a sign with the website for Kids Help Phone.
They conceived, shot and released the video in three days. It hit YouTube Feb. 4 and by the following Monday, Feb. 7, Sunflower became Zegers’ top-selling song on iTunes.
Platero sent the video to Kids Help Phone, who plan to use it on their website. The agency has already posted the video on their Facebook page, linked to it via Twitter and asked Zegers to be a celebrity ambassador for the organization.
Everyone is taking away their own story from the video, said Platero.
“From what I’ve found, it’s hitting people on a very profound level, causing a deep emotional connection between the song and the video,” said Platero, whose son has been bullied.
The response has been incredible, he added.
Since the video was released, viewers have been contacting Platero and Zegers through e-mail and Facebook, thanking the two for shooting the video and sharing its story.
“It’s nice because (people) feel they’ve developed a connection with the video. They love the message behind it,” said Platero.
Zegers was in Nashville co-writing songs for her album, Famous, when she heard the song Sunflower and started crying and knew she had to add the song to her album.
Sunflower hasn’t been released to radio yet, but has been promoted through social media sites.
Zegers will be performing her song at an annual walk for Kids Help Phone May 1 in London.
E-mail kelly.pedro@sunmedia.ca, or follow KellyatLFPress on Twitter.
