Tinashe Melatonin video

As if to further emphasize her lyrical contribution to Charli XCX’s remix of “B2B” in 2024, during which Tinashe declared, “Didn’t come out of nowhere, they been sleepin’ on me,” she’s taken that metaphor to the next level with “Melatonin.” As her third single from Popstar (following “Too Easy” and “Crash Out”), it continues to present a sonic motif that is decidedly EDM-driven. The irony in this particular case being that melatonin is meant to help a bitch sleep.

But no, that’s not what Tinashe wants at all (least of all when it comes to this track), sick and tired of too many people sleeping on her over the course of her now over-a-decade-long music career. In fact, Popstar will mark her sixth album (side note: Sabrina Carpenter endured a similar phenomenon of being mostly slept on until her sixth album, Short n’ Sweet). And it’s apparent, based on “Melatonin,” that Tinashe will not be ignored this time around.

That’s probably why she so boldly comes out of the gate with the chorus that goads, “Bet you thought we’d stop, you already know we kept it going/Getting hella coin, walking by, I see you hella pointing/Talking, talking, talking, talking, talking/Bitch, you hell annoying/Sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on me/Bitch, you so melatonin.” And with that, Tinashe takes the “sleeping on me” metaphor to new heights.

And, as if to ensure that it would be impossible to sleep on her (especially during this song), Tinashe enlists the help of Nightfeelings, Zack Sekoff and Ricky Reed to co-produce a sound that is so “crunchy” and electronically-infused (at times, even sounding a lot like the work of SOPHIE—though the more common comparison has been to Shygirl), it would be quite a feat for someone to doze off during this danceable ditty. Indeed, perhaps not even a drunken Lindsay Lohan in her 00s party girl heyday would be able to stay passed out if this had come on in the club (or in the car on the way to the afterparty).

What’s more, to visually capture how impossible it would be to sleep on her, Tinashe dresses, let’s say, very loudly in the accompanying video for “Melatonin,” once again directed by 91 Rules (a.k.a. the duo that is Erik Saltzman and Cameron Tidball-Sciullo), who also collaborated with her on the more simplistic visuals for “Crash Out.” This time around, however, Tinashe is “complicating” things a bit more with her sartorial style, which has as its primary focal point a Pipenco Lorena (a.k.a. Lorena Pipenco) hat that would probably make “Virtual Insanity”-era Jamiroquai splooge (and Dionne Davenport from Clueless, for that matter). Black, furry and bombastically oversized, its Dr. Seuss-correlating shape and zaniness rounds out a latex bodysuit and thigh-high boots, a look styled by Anna Trevelyan. Along with all the others that gradually start to crop up in the video (granted, these are clothes that, like Doja Cat’s in the video for “Agora Hills,” have a decidedly “pulled from the Dolls Kill rack” aesthetic—and no, that’s not meant to be an insult).

This includes a baby blue lace catsuit (with chest cutout flourishes) that Tinashe sports around the one-minute-thirteen-second mark, just as the tempo starts to shift to an even more electronic dance rhythm after Tinashe gets the chorus out of the way and segues into flexing, “You fucking with me, hope you know I’m what you asked for/In a different country, pull up to the back door/Can’t vacation with me, you ain’t got a passport.” Considering the percentage of Americans that have passports (about only fifty percent), Tinashe isn’t wrong there. In any case, she keeps the outfit showcase going in another number that consists of knee-high baby blue socks (or perhaps leg warmers would also be the appropriate term), a pale pink puff-sleeve top and pink and yellow lace panties. Then comes a decidedly Wonder Woman-esque outfit that features Tinashe in a red butterfly halter-neck top, blue briefs with a design in white that makes it look like a collar with buttons, thigh-high stockings with a red band at the top and white boots with a stripper heel.

While Tinashe starts out in this giant house on her own, soon enough, scenes of other “raver types” are intercut as the beat keeps intensifying, beckoning others to vibe with it as much as Tinashe. In this regard, it’s almost like Tinashe aims to prove that what she has to offer is, in essence, irresistible. The intermixing of high and low culture is also at play, with the palatial, mansion-like setting being in contrast with empty rooms that have either cheap, errant furniture in them (like a plastic chair) or antiquated electronics (like a stereo/karaoke machine on the floor as a man dances next to it or a TV with a DVD player connected to it as Tinashe herself dances next to it). There’s also plenty of random strings of Christmas lights, as any good house rave should have as part of the décor.

At around the two-minute-twelve-second mark, a sample from a viral TikTok video posted by kyaralechaee featuring the dialogue, “Why you crying?” “I never wanna stop partying, I love this shit” speaks to the raver spirit (and the Charli XCX one) all the more. As does the strobe light that really starts to go off as the beat drops with especial force after this sound bite plays.

As the song comes to a close, 91 Rules favors cutting back and forth between shots of Tinashe dancing on her own in the house (in the blue lace catsuit outfit) and dancing with a slew of other partiers behind her, whipping her ponytail around like a helicopter’s rotor blades. In the end, though, they opt to conclude with the image of her in that now signature hat, which has given Carrie Bradshaw a run for her money. And will surely add to the iconic imagery of Tinashe’s oeuvre that makes it increasingly impossible for anyone be “so melatonin” when it comes to her.