Nina West is channeling the holiday spirit with a tribute to John Waters and his iconic films "Female Trouble", "Serial Mom" and "Hairspray" in the new video for her song "Cha Cha Heels", featured on her holiday EP The West Christmas Ever.
I got to chat with Nina about the new video, and the holiday season (her favorite time of the year), and my number one question was, "why a John Waters Christmas?".
Her answer...it was simple, what's more Americana than John Waters! He's an American treasure! "People envision the holidays as a Norman Rockwell painting, but the truth is that reality is way more like a John Waters movie," she said, "No one's family is perfect, and there's gonna be some mishaps along the way, but in the end, you've got a good story".
The song is all about Dawn Davenport from Waters' film 'Female Trouble', but Nina decided to take three of Waters' memorable female characters and give them each a spotlight in the video. She loves how he writes women, pointing out that no matter what film it is they're "fun, independent, and strong".
Starting the film with Dawn and ending it with Tracy Turnblad from Hairspray was Nina's way of "bookending" the video with two characters who have the "opposite energy" of each other. "Dawn's energy is very 'I better, I want, I need' and Tracy's is 'I can't wait, I'm so excited, I'm so lucky'. I relate a lot to Tracy and Dawn is like my evil twin," she told me laughing.
Nestled comfortably in the middle was my personal favorite part of the video, an homage to Mom, Kathleen Turner's iconic role in Serial Mom (an incredibly underrated and not talked about enough movie in my humble opinion).
Like a John Waters movie, the video is fun, campy, colorful, and incredibly entertaining!
I also got to ask Nina how she's celebrating this covid Christmas, and although she can't be with her family, she's still keeping up her favorite holiday traditions like spending time with people she loves (who are safely in her quarantine bubble of course) and decorating her FIVE Christmas trees!
But the big question is, will she get the Cha Cha Heels she so badly wants? You'll have to watch the video to find out!
Nina's Christmas EP the West Christmas Ever! is available now and can be found on all streaming platforms.