Konstantin Podprugin and Christabel Williams in her music video Jealous. Photo / Supplied
Konstantin Podprugin and Christabel Williams in her music video Jealous. Photo / Supplied
Popstars winner Christabel Williams has a cast member from Netflix show Stranger Things starring in her first overseas video.
Earlier this year, Williams left New Zealand for Los Angeles to chase her musical dreams and make it big. Her new song, Jealous, which drops this Friday, has her on the right track with a fierce catchy track and a killer groove.
Accompanying the single is a 70s-inspired music video in which Williams, clad in an airline attendant's uniform, walks in on her husband doing the dirty, showcasing some stellar acting from the songstress. Konstantin Podprugin, who played a Russian prisoner in the latest season of the hit Netflix show, plays the unfaithful husband.
"Kon was an absolute trooper, he grew a moustache especially for our project," Williams tells Spy.
"Jealous, unlike most of my songs, is not based on personal experience this time. This was my chance to really tell an exaggerated story, become a different character, and try to put myself in such an intense pair of shoes."
Williams says the song has been carved from observations she's made of toxic relationships between friends and people she knew. It's been a year since she released a song and say she's so excited she could "explode".
Last year she collected $100,000 after winning TVNZ2's Popstars and released her single 'If You Ain't Looking' which hit No 1 on the iTunes charts.
Popstar Christabel Williams. Photo / Supplied
Kiwi boyfriend Luca Turner, with whom Williams was staying in Hollywood, was on the Jealous filming set the whole time, working.
"Luca was the king of everything camera related; you want a DOP? Got it. Producer? Got it. DIT? You should have seen the work this man put into planning each and every shot on a 3D software to save us time on set," Williams says proudly.
Another LA-based Kiwi, Mason Cade Packer, is the video's director and editor.
"Mason is insane, but in all the best ways. He treated this project like his own first-born child," Williams says.
There's more coming from her time in LA but all 21-year-old Williams will say is "Watch this space."
For the past few months, Williams has been in the UK enjoying the hot weather and spending time with family.
"I stayed with my aunt, uncle, and cousins and wombled around a bit, got to know everyone and visited my granddad and (step)nana for the first time in my life," she says.
"It was so good to be there, to meet everyone as an adult, and I feel accomplished by that."
And she used the downtime to get a few tattoos.
"In London, I got about eight tattoos all in the space of three days. I even got a tattoo in honour of the Jealous music video, (the image of the martini with an eyeball skewer) so I can remember it forever," she says.
"The tattoo was well deserved after all the hard work that went into making the music video."
Now the Ankle Deep singer says she is in a little country cottage out in the sticks in Herefordshire, with her friend Gail and her two sausage dogs.
Christabel Williams in her music video Jealous. Photo / Supplied
"It's here that I've hidden away, with air to breathe, space to write, away from home, away from the city, away from LA smog. Just a great view, no noise, except for the hounds and me banging away at the piano, singing," she says.
"I am taking advantage of all of this freedom. Although, I won't lie, a lot of my days are spent in my room with my laptop writing away and planning my attack ... I am letting my creativity control life at the moment."
New Zealand's answer to Taylor Swift says she is focusing on something a bit more cohesive for an upcoming project.
"It's got a more moody, dark undertone to it but still has an upbeat feel. The words I'd use to describe it are devious, cunning, sly, and a little bit neurotic."
Williams heads back to London next month where she will be joined by Turner and her mum, Ros.
"I am so excited to see them both. I'll get to introduce Luca to the other side of my whānau, and it's so exciting that my mum gets to see everyone again."
Before heading back to LA, Williams and Turner will shoot another music video together in the UK with another Kiwi connection.
"Our former flatmate, a good pal and rising creative in Aotearoa happens to be here at the same time as us. I'd tell you more, but I think I need to leave something to the imagination."
