Watch Virgin Miri’s darkly comic “Basic Ordinary Ugly” video

The Sweden-via-NYC pop artist drops her debut single, co-produced with T-Minus.

November 10, 2022
Watch Virgin Miri’s darkly comic “Basic Ordinary Ugly” video Natasha Uljanic

Born in the tiny Swedish town of Borrby (population 390) and now living in New York (so make that 389), Virgin Miri‘s sound is minimalist in terms of composition but goes big on hooks and feeling.

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Her debut single “Basic Ordinary Ugly,” co-produced by J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar collaborator T-Minus, is filled with heavy-hitting drums and self-doubt as Miri sings from the position of new romance, where the ground is shaky and you start to question everything. Am I good enough? Am I pretty enough? Is everything I say boring? If you have ever asked yourself anything along those lines then you’ll relate.

“Basic Ordinary Ugly” comes with a video that in which Miri offs one partner, with a frying pan no less, before seducing another at the funeral. It’s a fun, campy visual that also plays with the idea that negative self-image is bred into us at a young age with a baby caught singing the “I’m basic ordinary ugly” hook on an ultrasound while still in the womb. Check out the video above.

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In a statement sent to The FADER via email, Miri says: I Iove minimalist pop songs with lots of space, where the silence almost becomes a sound in itself. My favorite thing is a really clubby song that only consists of a few elements. There’s something very powerful in that. You know when you meet someone cool and handsome and you feel like an ugly, boring and basic person in comparison? You become shy, quiet and overthink everything you say. That feeling inspired ‘Basic Ordinary Ugly.’”

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Watch Virgin Miri’s darkly comic “Basic Ordinary Ugly” video