“Everybody Wants You,” Johnny Orlando‘s big new single, shares 75 percent of a name with “Everybody Here Wants You,” an immortal, silken entry in ’90s alt-crooner Jeff Buckley’s all too brief, staggeringly beautiful career. The songs don’t sound much alike, but seeing the title of Orlando’s blown up in bleeding purple text at the front of his new video put me in a Buckley mindset; the mood quickly followed.
While Buckley’s song leaves an unmistakeable R&B footprint, Orlando channels more contemporary bedroom pop, imbuing his latest cut with lo-fi rhythm chops that yield to a booming stadium chorus. In the cinematic new video, directed by Alex P. Smith, Orlando is the star, embodying a dusk romantic vibe as he drives around his city and tries to soak up the last bit of a summer eve.
Orlando, a 17-year-old Toronto talent and Juno nominee, belongs in an aesthetic class alongside fellow DiCaprio-circa-Titanic middle-part Gen Z heartthrobs Greyson Chance and Ruel — and, come to think of it, Buckley could be a stylistic spiritual Gen X godfather — though his sound is more in the vein of fellow Canadian Shawn Mendes, if more outright pop-leaning.
The “Everybody Wants You” video arrives just as Orlando begins his senior year of high school, and he marked the occasion on Instagram.
Watch Orlando haunt the twilight of Toronto in the dynamic “Everybody Wants You” video, which premiered on MTV today (September 10), above.
