Heaven-Representations

• Sande states that 'Heaven' is about what it means to be good for the current generation when social and cultural life is so fast that there are many negative influences to try and overcome
• Theme of heaven and religion is apparant throughout- we first see the imagery of angel wings by graffiti- this makes actors in the video appear to have angel wings
• Emeli sande used the theme of angels to suggest that many people need to become better.
• She used realist representation of street life to represent her authnicity and cultural links(filmed in london where there is a lot of ethnic groups etc)
• Made use on non-actors to add cutting edge to her as an artist
• she celebrates the transcendence of poverty and inequality to transfer that view of transcendence to the artist
• included a number of representations of her fan base to attract a wider audience.
• The video represents diversity and urban life, particularly ‘street life’ and issues of poverty, class and race/ethnicity. This is evident by the repetitive inclusion of homeless people, children in poverty, ‘urban’ streets which appear to have had less money invested in them, teenagers in the park smoking and other people generally looking worn out/tired/run down/unhappy. However there are a few shots where children are giggling and enjoying themselves playing, which represents the innocence and care-free attitude of children. Contrastingly we also see young children of colour looking longingly into the camera, as if pleaing for help. This represents the dire situation of poverty in our country at this time, suggesting that it is even taking away the innocence of childhood. The video absolutely represents the stereotyping of women of colour as ‘urban’, as the majority of women shown in the video have varied ethnicities. Whether the intention was to highlight the stereotype as negative, or to show that the stereotype is in fact accurate to a certain point, is unknown.