Chloe Cherry, Bretman Rock and Madison Beer also star
In 2020, Naval veteran Bella Poarch posted a video on TikTok lip-syncing and making silly faces to Millie B’s “M to the B”. 56 million views later, it’s one of the most-viewed videos on the app, and Poarch is an established singer in her own right. She releases her third single, “Dolls”, today, following her debut “Build a B*tch” and the Sub Urban collaboration, “Inferno”.
In a statement, Poarch said: “Dolls is all about self-empowerment and confidence.”
“It’s a follow-up to my song ‘Build a B*tch’ but it stands out on its own as well by being gentle but fierce, beautiful but deadly. The importance of helping one another while also not letting anyone make you feel weak or worthless.”
The song’s music video, directed by Andrew Donoho, features a slew of famous faces including Chloe Cherry, Bretman Rock, Madison Beer, and Grimes, and is a continuation of the story depicted in the “Build a B*tch” video.
In the “Dolls” video, Poarch is the leader of a revolution, liberating the dolls from the factory that created them, with the help of a bionic arm (in the “Build a B*tch” video – as the title suggests – men get to design and own their ideal woman).
When Poarch tries to attack the CEO of the corporation that owns the doll-making factories – played by Minecraft streamer, Dream – he sets his bodyguard, a red-eyed Grimes, on her. The two fight, with Grimes slamming Poarch into the floor and throwing her through a wall – before Grimes sees a monitor showing the murder of escaped dolls. Her red eyes dim and she turns to look at Poarch as she realises that she’s a doll too.
“That’s her moment of realisation,” Poarch told NME. “Realisation of what she’s truly been a part of. Realisation that she has been controlled, taken advantage of and fighting on the wrong side of the battle all along. The deeper meaning is that we don’t always have to win the fight.”
“It was fun and kind of scary [shooting those scenes], to be honest,” Poarch added. “Grimes and I had to go through fight training and it’s one of the coolest things I’ve done in a while.”
Poarch and Grimes have been friends for some time. “[Bella] is calm in the face of chaos. Despite being through some deeply fucked-up stuff, she’s hyper-focused on optimism and making sure everyone wins,” Grimes said of Poarch in a recent Rolling Stone profile.
In another recent interview with Cosmopolitan, Poarch explained that she met Grimes through producer Benny Blanco. “She’s one of my closest friends,” she said. “They were in his studio and I decided to go. We might have a song together.” Poarch also said that Grimes recommends books to her, including a book called Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (what else?).
Watch the video for Dolls above.