MKTO premiered the music video for fan-favorite track “Just Imagine It” on Tuesday (April 21) exclusively with Billboard.
Originally released in 2015 as part of their Bad Girls EP, the track finds the duo longing for a better world — a concept that prompted them to dust off the song and create a new video as the 2020 presidential election looms. “Somewhere off in outer space/ There’s a world, no wars, no hate/ Where all the broken hearts are safe/ I don’t know where it is/ I just imagine it,” Tony Oller croons on the song’s chorus before rapper Malcolm Kelley jumps in with a rapid-fire political rallying cry on each verse.
“The message in ‘Just Imagine It’] will always resonate no matter how perfect or bad the world is. Hopefully it just allows you to escape,” Oller tells Billboard. Kelley adds, “To me it’s a sense of hope since the world is going through a lot … even just saying, ‘Imagine a place without hate.’ It’s the fact that it’s still relevant to what was going on, and we missed the chance back then to make a video.”
For MKTO, the five-year-old track also took on prescient new meaning in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. “I think we should just focus on what we can do as individuals to help our fellow human right now,” Oller says. “The amount of workers working on the front lines daily with a disease that is killing more and more, they are the heroes. I’m more grateful for them and want to do anything we can do to support them, which is why social distancing and quarantining yourself is the best way to help if you’re not sure what to do. They’re more important than any upcoming election.”
Since their 2015 EP — itself a follow-up to their 2014 debut album and smash single “Classic” — the pop act has released a steady string of singles, including 2020’s “Party With Friends” and “Simple Things,” as well as “Consider Me Yours,” “Marry Those Eyes” and “Shoulda Known Better” in 2019.
Check out the exclusive premiere of “Just Imagine It” below.
