Hannah Lux Davis: the high priestess of pop promos

As a teenager growing up in the glory days of MTV, London Alley’s Hannah Lux Davis used to race home from school to catch the TRL countdown on telly, drinking in the extravagant aesthetic, potent colours and bold choreography that characterised the music videos of late ‘90s/early ’00-era pop icons like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.  

I’d watch my sister’s musical theatre performances and give her suggestions or criticism…whether she liked it or not. 

Now, as the go-to director for the likes of Ariana Grande, Halsey, Doja Cat and Charli XCX, she’s making culture-shaping promos of her own – rebooted for the YouTube generation. From Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next – which broke records for the most-watched music video on YouTube within 24 hours – to last year’s Barbie movie tie-in with rappers Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice, Davis’ videos regularly attract the sort of viewing figures that would top a modern-day version of TRL.

Yet more than a decade into her directing career, she says success is still a “pinch me” moment: “It’s really fucking cool to be making videos that are part of the cultural touchstone.”       

Hannah Lux Davis' music video for Charlie XCX's Good Ones, 2021

Dialling in from her home in Los Angeles, Davis – perched on a fluffy white chair in front of a huge mirror, sporting a striped shirt and tortoiseshell glasses - looks like she’s starring in one of her own videos, cosplaying a sexy secretary, perhaps.  

I half expect her to whip off the specs, shake out her impossibly lustrous locks and launch into one of her signature choreographed routines. “Well, I was on the drill [a style of precision group dance, similar to cheerleading] team in high school,” she laughs, “as well as in a marching band.”    

I was terrified every single time I went on set, because everything was so different. I’m the type of person who likes to come to my job prepared and know what my day’s going to involve. 

Growing up in a pre-iPhone era, Davis’ first attempts at filmmaking involved “filming my friends on a weird old VHS camera” and messing around with music videos in Final Cut, editing alternative tracks over visuals. Her eye for detail, evident in the impeccable styling and glossy looks that characterise her work (“I’m very heavy-handed in the glam department”) was honed from an early age: “I’d watch my sister’s musical theatre performances and give her suggestions or criticism…whether she liked it or not.”

Davis' dark music video for Halsey's track Nightmare in 2019 sees the singer morph personas from punk rocker to dominatrix to housewife. 

After graduation, Lux Davis left her hometown of Bellevue, Seattle for the “big bad city” of Los Angeles to pursue her dream of working in the film industry, completing courses at the New York Film Academy and the LA Film School before landing a production assistant role with Revolver. 

The industry is so up-and-down and even when you’re fully prepped, the whole shoot can go haywire.

But as an under-confident 20-year-old, she found it hard to garner practical experience. “I hated it!” she remembers. “I was terrified every single time I went on set, because everything was so different. I’m the type of person who likes to come to my job prepared and know what my day’s going to involve. Of course, the joke’s on me now, as the industry is so up-and-down and even when you’re fully prepped, the whole shoot can go haywire.” 

Davis' 2018’s VMA-winning promo 7 Rings for Ariana Grande, an ode to female empowerment realised in an unapologetically pink palette. 

Instead, she decided to retrain as a make-up artist, while continuing to direct and edit small jobs, explaining: “I was able to get on set in a different way – talk with the directors and the producers, receive the treatment or script, make connections and understand the creative process.”   

Davis’ lateral thinking and strong work ethic paid off in 2013 when record label exec Jeffrey Panzer, who she’d done some editing work for, asked her to treat on Lil’ Wayne’s Love Me video with Drake and Future. The dark, high-fashion concept she came up with was unusual for the hip-hop market at the time and “felt like a long shot – but they ended up loving it.” 

Creatively, we were able to push beyond just a shot for shot homage of the films and crack into the specificities of Ariana’s brand and fan base and tell a story that was personal to her.

In the decade following her directorial big break, Davis has gone on to hone her self-described “pretty gritty” aesthetic through “sexy but empowering storytelling”, earning 12 MTV Music Video Award nominations and helping craft and evolve the visual identities of her “girlies” - aka some of the biggest female names in pop. Long before brat summer, she helped Charli XCX unveil a dark new identity and embrace her inner demon by staging a sexed-up funeral in Good Ones.

Meanwhile the video for Halsey’s Nightmare, a furious all-female affair which sees the singer morph personas from punk rocker to dominatrix to housewife, was the perfect vehicle to launch Halsey’s new pop punk-infused sound and ‘angry feminist’ credentials.  

Davis' promo for Ariana Grande's thank u, next parodied scenes from Legally Blonde, Mean Girls, 13 Going on 30 and Bring it On to address the singer’s much-publicised past relationships.

One of Davis’ most fruitful partnerships has undoubtably been with singer-songwriter turned actress Ariana Grande, a career-defining collaboration that’s produced seven hit promos and seen the artist go from pop wannabe to global household name. They include 2018’s VMA-winning 7 Rings, an ode to female empowerment realised in an unapologetically pink palette, from the fashion to the lighting and production design. Not many artists thank their directors by way of a Tiffany diamond ring, but Grande famously did just that – and no wonder, with the video’s views currently standing at a staggering 1.4 billion on Grande’s official Vevo channel.  

Artists, especially nowadays, are really savvy with their brand and how they want to be portrayed.

7 Rings was followed by the bona fide cultural phenomenon that was Thank U, Next, which broke the then-record for the most-watched music video on YouTube within 24 hours. Tapping into the cult Noughties rom-coms of Davis’ youth, the promo parodied scenes from Legally Blonde, Mean Girls, 13 Going on 30 and Bring it On to address the singer’s much-publicised past relationships (including the reputed size of a certain ex’s – ahem – appendage).  

“Creatively, we were able to push beyond just a shot for shot homage of the films and crack into the specificities of Ariana’s brand and fan base and tell a story that was personal to her,” recalls Davis.  

Davis’ other repeat customers include Grammy-nominated musician Demi Lovato and the rapper Doja Cat. What’s the secret to these long-running collaborations? “Artists, especially nowadays, are really savvy with their brand and how they want to be portrayed. They’re going to want to work with someone who will really partner with them and tell their story in a way that doesn’t feel like it’s the director’s way or the highway,” says Davis.  

Last year Davis directed Hello World, an Olympics promo for Coca-Cola featuring Ryan Tedder, Gwen Stefani and Anderson .Paak.

When it comes to creative inspiration, Davis isn’t shy about ransacking the cultural archives, as Thank U, Next proved. More recently, her video for Tate McCrae’s It’s Ok I’m Ok features the Canadian popstrel strutting sassily on the streets of New York and getting arrested by a hunky policeman - before gyrating around a construction site with zero regard to health and safety.  

I like to get a really good strong understanding from the artist of what they’re trying to say with this next piece of promotional material and what they want to look like in this stage of their journey.

Fans were quick to point out the similarities to Britney’s Womanizer and I Wanna Go as well as the Pussycat Dolls’ When I Grow Up. “It was a bit of homage to those videos,” agrees Davis, “but the idea stemmed from me wanting to cram a lot of action into a one-day shoot. How could I maximise the time to get a bunch of different looks and scenes that had a taste of a narrative, while not getting bogged down in a narrative, and world build in a way that gave Tate the landscape to perform?” 

The video for Shakira and Cardi B's track Punteria depicted a magical world replete with sexy centaurs.

Although her nostalgia-infused, fem-glam style is instantly recognisable, Davis is adamant she’s no one-trick pony. “My concepts aren’t necessarily ‘plug and play’; I don’t really get to recycle my treatments that don’t make it.” Instead, the creative process is tailored to the individual artist, starting with their motivations. “I like to get a really good strong understanding from the artist of what they’re trying to say with this next piece of promotional material and what they want to look like in this stage of their journey,” she explains.  

It’s about someone’s confidence and how they perform and project themselves into the world. As more and more women are directing [promos], the more we’re seeing that perspective.

For Davis, the goal is always to create a video where the tone, look, feel and narrative elevate the artist’s brand and push their career forward on a larger scale – but for newer artists, the first challenge is “figuring out what that brand truly is – both for the team and the artist themselves.” Her work with Doja Cat is a case in point: when they first collaborated on Say So in 2020, the track had already gone viral on TikTok, and Davis felt “an immense responsibility to deliver something impactful”, that would help the rapper break through on a more commercial level. Three years later, when they reunited for Agora Hills, Doja was fully established as an artist, with a “crystal-clear understanding of her brand and how to convey it… in front of the camera.” 

Davis' promo for David Guetta and Sia's Let's Love.

It’s impossible to talk about Davis’ work without touching on the debate around the hyper-sexualisation of female artists and the way their bodies are presented on screen. Twenty years ago, Britney’s sweat-drenched I’m a Slave (4 U) and Christina Aguilera’s Dirrrty sparked huge outrage for their racy costumes and dance routines, but compared with the tongues-out twerk-fest on display in Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s Barbie Girl, or the explicit nudity in It’s Ok I’m Ok, they look positively demure. 

You can't get away with doing a performance video that just moves from set up to set up to set up anymore.

Is this an authentic portrayal of female sexuality through a corresponding lens, or simply objectification reframed as empowerment? “Obviously, everyone’s attitude to [sexualised imagery] is subjective,” Davis says diplomatically, pointing out that for every scantily-clad pop star, there’s an artist like Billie Eilish who champions a completely covered-up aesthetic – and that power comes from a woman owning their sex appeal in whatever form feels most authentic to them. “It’s not necessarily about the fact they’re wearing less clothing. It’s about someone’s confidence and how they perform and project themselves into the world. As more and more women are directing [promos], the more we’re seeing that perspective.” 

Davis directed this time-hopping music video for Bebe Rexha's Baby I'm Jealous.

Davis herself entered the music video industry when female directors were thin on the ground and credits veterans Flora Sigismondi and Sophie Muller among her biggest influences. Along with increasing numbers of women behind the camera, one of the biggest changes she’s noticed over the course of her career is the effect of social media and waning attention spans on the flow and edit of a music video. 

Artists do have more say, but they deserve it – they’ve earned an understanding of their own brand and the business in general.

“It doesn’t mean stories have to be told super-fast, unlike commercials. But you can't get away with doing a performance video that just moves from set up to set up to set up anymore. You have to create something that visually evolves more than it used to keep people watching. If the last 30 seconds are the same as the first 30 seconds, why do they need to watch it to the end?”