Yuna - Come As You Are

What this video is

Released July 5, 2011 as Yuna's signing announcement to New York's FADER Label, this video functions as a cultural introduction to Western audiences for a Malaysian singer-songwriter who had already achieved major domestic success. The choice to cover Nirvana's 'Come As You Are' — reinterpreting a canonical 1990s grunge anthem through a delicate, acoustic-folk lens — is a pointed act of cross-cultural…

Why it matters

A landmark early document of Southeast Asian indie pop entering the Western tastemaker ecosystem. By reclaiming a grunge classic through an acoustic-folk, hijab-wearing, Malaysian-born artist, the video challenged default assumptions about the geography and aesthetics of 'alternative' music. It…