Major Lazer debuts the music video for their latest single, “Lay Your Head On Me” featuring Marcus Mumford, today—watch HERE. Director Filip Nilsson curated a cast of artists from around the world to contribute to the video through movement and music. Comprised of 177 clips from 28 countries, this global collaboration conveys a celebration of humanity fitting for these tough times and today’s celebration of Earth Day.
Enlisting the vision of renowned choreographer Ryan Heffington (LSD, Sia, Florence & The Machine, FKA Twigs, Christine & The Queens), Nilsson reached out to artists with a simple request: “Do your best, it doesn’t need to be perfect. Be yourself. We like you as you are.” Among the artists and creators who answered the call—with some playing along on their own instruments and some dancing—were Israeli pop duo Lola Marsh, London dancer Ashraf Ejjbair, Dream Catchers Academy—an academy of orphan children in Nigeria—and Brazilian brothers Renan and Renato, one of whom is blind and is shown learning the choreographed dance from his brother in the video.
“When we started working with this simple idea over a month ago COVID-19 had just started to get a grip of the world,” Nilsson says. “During these weeks we have seen tapes from people all over the world. The response was way more than could have been expected and it was amazing to see the different interpretations of what we requested from people. It’s so touching that all these people took the time to learn the dance routine or to play the music in such a short amount of time. The positivity and honest love they shared is something I really wanted to come through in this video.”
Artists and creators from the following countries contributed to the “Lay Your Head On Me” music video: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, China (Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei), France, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria, Panama, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, the U.A.E., U.K., Ukraine and the U.S.
‘Lay Your Head On Me’, Mumford’s first ever collaboration of its kind, was co-written with MØ and premiered as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record in the World on BBC Radio 1 before also earning Greg James’ Tune Of The Week and MistaJam’s Dance Anthems.
Marcus Mumford is the frontman of the Grammy-award winning band Mumford & Sons. Stepping out as a featured artist for the first time with this track, Mumford also just released a new charity single—a solo cover of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” originally made famous Gerry and The Pacemakers in the 1960s. After striking up a friendship with Diplo, the two began experimenting in the studio together and an early demo of “Lay Your Head On Me” was born.
“Lay Your Head On Me” follows “Que Calor” featuring J Balvin and El Alfa, which was performed by Balvin at the Super Bowl alongside Jennifer Lopez and is still climbing charts worldwide with more than 400 million streams to date.
