Two of the biggest music superstars in the world, Drake and Rihanna, are getting set to premiere new music videos for their fans. Rihanna's contribution to the Star Trek Beyond movie soundtrack is the first video ever to be filmed exclusively with IMAX cameras and is set to premiere on June 30, while Drake is currently in South Africa filming the clip for his massive hit "One Dance."
Rihanna's song recently premiered, and the anthemic power ballad's accompanying clip has the auspicious honor of being the "first ever IMAX Video," according to the singer. The video is slated to premiere exclusively in IMAX theaters on June 30 at 9 a.m. EDT and will then be available to the public at 10 a.m. EDT to stream on both Tidal and Vevo.
In advance of the release, Rihanna posted a preview clip to her Twitter account showing the singer writhing around on a rocky planet glowing in haunting purple light as meteors shower the atmosphere. Rihanna has also posted a featurette explaining her connection to the Star Trek franchise.
"Star Trek has been a part of my life since I was a little girl," she explains in the Twitter clip. "It just took me one episode to fall in love with this other world that I couldn't understand but I felt I could relate to ... You always felt emotionally connected to the characters ... I was very very honored to be a part of this film."
Meanwhile, Rihanna's frequent collaborator Drake is working on a big music video of his own, the clip for the massive hit "One Dance," which, by all accounts so far, is the song of summer 2016. A series of Instagram clips posted by various members of the video shoot, as well as fans who mobbed the singer at the location, were posted from Soweto, South Africa, where filming is taking place.
The video is long-awaited, as the song has been out for months already, having topped the Billboard Hot 100 for seven (non-consecutive) weeks as well as ruling the digital download charts and streaming charts on Billboard and Spotify. There's no word yet on when the video will officially premiere, or if it will land as an Apple Music exclusive, as his record-breaking Views album did upon release.
The unprecedented success of "One Dance" so far, sans an accompanying video clip, proves that, while the right video can in fact be a massive marketing tool, music vids are not a necessary component of a smash hit in 2016. It's likely, however, that the clip's release will now extend the reign of "One Dance" at the top of the charts as fans tune in in droves to stream the video, which will count toward the popular song's chart placing.
