Stina Nordenstam - Little Star

What this video is

Released in 1994 at the peak of MTV's auteur director era, this video sits at the intersection of Scandinavian indie fragility and the emerging European art-music-video movement. Stina Nordenstam's hushed, jazz-inflected vocal style and the song's disguised subject matter — widely interpreted as being about suicide — contrasts sharply with the warmth of its sonic and visual presentation, a tension characteristic of…

Why it matters

A landmark artefact of 1990s Nordic indie art-pop, demonstrating how the music video format could accommodate radical sonic and emotional restraint. Gondry's visual approach mirrors Nordenstam's musical economy — both stripping away excess to foreground vulnerability. The video predates Gondry's…

The director

Michel Gondry (born 8 May 1963, Versailles, France) is a French filmmaker and producer. His career began directing music videos for the French band Oui Oui, whose style attracted Björk, leading to a celebrated collaboration beginning with 'Human Behaviour'…