John Legend – You & I (Nobody in the World)
2014 · Directed by Mishka Kornai
827K Likes
Best comments
1.“My new wife (1st wife, lol) walked down the aisle to this. My tears flowed.”
More comments
- 2.“I can NEVER watch this video properly, because my tears always cloud my eyeballs.”
- 3.“As the father of a newborn baby girl, all I can think about is how do I empower my little girl so she's not self-conscious... constantly worrying how she'll be judged.”
The story
Here's a love song where the singer mostly gets out of the way. Director Mishka Kornai turned the camera into a mirror and filmed women and girls doing what most of us do in front of one: hunting for flaws. A pregnant woman. A woman bald from chemo. A young girl with Down syndrome. A boxer with a bloody nose. A woman in tears over the scars a mastectomy left behind.
A few famous faces slip into the lineup – Laverne Cox wiping off her makeup, comedian Tig Notaro, Tatyana Ali and Legend's wife Chrissy Teigen – but most of the women aren't celebrities, and that's the point. The song is Legend telling one woman she's the only one for him. The video hands that same message to everybody staring down their own reflection.
It landed July 10, 2014, made with the young filmmakers at EVERDREAM, along with a companion documentary called When I Look in the Mirror. It was tied to #OperationGirl, a fundraising push with RYOT and the Burkle Global Initiative for groups that protect and educate women and girls, and it pulled more than five million views in its first three days. The song, the fourth single from Love in the Future, followed the runaway success of All of Me and went platinum in the US. Mirrors lie. Good to get a second opinion.
