PinkPantheress’ Gambit: The “Romeo” Video

The success of PinkPantheress’ nine-track mixtape, Fancy That, continues with yet another video from one of the songs on the album, “Romeo.” A mid-tempo ditty that happens to be the final track on the album, and yet another that samples from Basement Jaxx (specifically, their 2004 hit, “Good Luck”)—after “Girl Like Me,” which itself samples from the well-known Basement Jaxx single, “Romeo.” But perhaps PinkPantheress thought it would be too on the nose to use the latter sample in her own song of the same name. Just as she seemed to think it would be too on the nose to set her Iris Luz-directed music video in Verona while wearing some Renaissance-y ensembles. And besides, she already explored the Regency era in her Bridgerton-inspired video for “Tonight.” So why bother returning to the “deep past” again? 

Still, it’s apparent she wants to pay some kind of homage to the Shakespeare play that everyone associates the name Romeo with, thus wielding other specific character names from Romeo and Juliet in her “Pink Cubs” group chat (e.g., Rosaline, Paris and Mercutio). Before revealing these texts, however, PinkPantheress sets the stage for where the milieu of the video will be with a title card that reads: “Summer 2025: A competitive chess tournament takes place in South London. This video was filmed at that tournament.” As such, PinkPantheress seemed to take plenty of advantage of the opportunity to be amidst some fellow chess pros, save for Destin Conrad, who just happens to be playing the “video vixen,” as he calls himself in the Instagram post mentioning the video’s release. 

However, while Conrad might not be a chess guru, PinkPantheress certainly is, with chess prowess in her blood thanks to being the niece of five-time British Women’s Chess Champion Susan Lalic (who also holds the chess titles of International Master and Woman Grandmaster). Perhaps wanting to finally show off that side of herself in a more immortalized way (read: the music video medium), in addition to waiting for The Queen’s Gambit to more fully fall away from public consciousness, PinkPantheress goes all out on revealing her fervor for the game. Which also acts as a kind of metaphor for what happens when a person falls in love, maneuvering and posturing in a manner that might lead him or her to attract—lure—the other person successfully and to “make them” fall in love in return. 

In this sense, the idea of one’s would-be lover acting as a kind of “opponent” is only too real. Along with the symbolism of putting as much strategy into winning their love as what goes into moving the pawns on a chessboard. And, to be sure, it often does feel like some unseen “hand” is moving us forward or backward in this chessboard called life, which also applies to matters of l’amour. 

Luckily for PinkPantheress, who, at times, looks more like she’s at a speed dating event than playing chess, she hasn’t fallen in love, knowing better as she tells (or rather, lip-syncs telling) a reporter interviewing her about her “strategy,” “Step one, don’t let yourself fall in love/‘Cause that is not fun.” Because it’s never fun to not be the one in control, and falling in love with another person means exactly that: losing all control. Something a chess queen like PinkPantheress simply can’t abide, instead acting as the ringleader of all the other players at certain points in the video that give way to more fantastical moments. Like PinkPantheress in the center of a giant chessboard (placed atop a tartan print, of course, in keeping with the Fancy That visual motif) surrounded by players/backup dancers who look as though they’re dressed in marching band uniforms (while a chess uniform would essentially amount to a suit jacket, button-front shirt and maybe a tie).

Appearing at one point as though she’s scaled to the same size as a chess piece, it somewhat harkens back to a scene in Megan Thee Stallion’s “Whenever” video when she rides on the “horse chess piece” a.k.a. the knight. In fact, it’s PinkPantheress’ move with the knight at the end of the video that wins her the tournament. And, since life imitates art, she opts to make the final scene of her holding the trophy she seemed to so effortlessly win. And yes, if there was a trophy for Most Aloof in Matters of Being Pursued, she might just get that too, if “Romeo” is anything to go by.