Monsters (Violetta DiNozzo Song)

"Monsters" is a single by trance-rock singer Violetta DiNozzo, and the second to be released from her third album "Divide & Conquer". It was the first UK single from the album, after "Louder Than Words" was released as a digital promo single. "Monsters" provided Violetta with her second career #1 in the UK, and her first completely solo chart-topper. The single was not released in the United States, who received "Louder Than Words" instead.

Background
"Monsters" was written in November 2010 by Violetta, upon hearing rumours that friends had been saying negative things about her behind her back. Violetta wrote about questioning perceptions of herself, and whether those perceptions were because of her personality or whether her personality was built by perceptions of her. It was one of the first songs written for the album after the "Darling Violetta Project" brand identity was shelved, and was chosen to be the lead UK single for its planned April release date. When the album was postponed, Violetta briefly switched her comeback single to "Louder Than Words", which eventually was reduced to a digital buzz single in the UK, with "Monsters" restored as the lead UK single while "Louder Than Words" was instead released in the US. The song was a major departure from Violetta's previous trance sounds, bringing to light the trance/rock shift Violetta's music was taking.

Reception
"Monsters" received an explosive reaction upon its premiere, due to its powerful rock and electronic sounds, Violetta's thunderous vocals and its vast difference to Violetta's previous material. There was some confusion over Syd Wolfe and her own single and album of the same title; Violetta went to great lengths to deem her single 'different' from Syd's, and she received minor backlash for these claims over Violetta's ideas and concepts not being all that far-removed from Syd's. Violetta eventually settled the controversy by saying that she merely wanted to let it be absolutely clear that her "Monsters" was not a carbon-copy and rip-off of Syd's "Monsters". Violetta's comeback was a massive success, leading to major sales on physical and digital platforms, topping both the physical and digital charts, and achieving a high airplay ranking.

Promo CD

 * 1) Monsters (Radio Edit)
 * 2) Monsters (Album Version)
 * 3) Monsters (Radio Instrumental)

CD1

 * 1) Monsters (Radio Edit)
 * 2) Illuminati
 * 3) Monsters (Radio Instrumental)

CD2

 * 1) Monsters (Album Version)
 * 2) Rewriting History
 * 3) Monsters (Remorse Code Vocal Mix)
 * 4) Monsters (Jost & Naaf Remix)

Digital EP

 * 1) Monsters (Album Version)
 * 2) Illuminati
 * 3) Rewriting History
 * 4) Monsters (Remorse Code Acid Dub)
 * 5) Monsters (Blackstar Trance Re-Work)
 * 6) Monsters (Pretty Lights Remix)

Music Video
The video opens with a shot of the earth as the intro music to ‘Monsters’ begins. Scrambled letters appear on-screen, randomly tumbling through letters until they write out ‘Earth 2011’. Down on the surface, we see terrified people running for cover wherever they can find it; inside houses, cars, even jumping down into the sewers. We see a meteor coming down from space (following its tail) and we see that same meteor approaching from the ground. As the tribal drums and guitar blasts kick in, we get to see a new scene of Violetta with a backing band in a room. Violetta snarls as she lashes out the guitar chords. While Violetta and her band rock out to the intro, we see the city darken as the skies cloud over.

When the first verse begins, we see Violetta sitting in an interrogation room with a hoodie pulled over her eyes. An overweight cop is pacing around her as she adjusts fingerless leather gloves on her hands. He seems oblivious to her singing the song, and she seems to ignore him as she directs her attention to the camera. Other shots show Violetta from the other side of the two-way mirror in the interrogation room, with Violetta calmly sitting and listening to the cop’s ranting, while we see on a monitor a different image – one of Violetta singing to the surveillance camera in the room while the cop continues to interrogate her as though she’s still sitting down. Intercut with this are shots of Violetta in a black-and-white vinyl catsuit, hair done in black and white to match her outfit, moving around an expensive gold chair. This Violetta has no face.

Violetta is back in the room with her band, rocking out to the chorus. There are numerous close-up shots of her hands playing the guitar as she sings. Meanwhile, we see more shots of the ‘monster’ Violetta in the chair room, lounging all over the chair and ‘looking’ at the camera even though she is faceless. Through all this, we see even more of the city as it falls under fire and destruction, with debris cascading down onto the streets. The second verse continues on with shots like this, cutting between the faceless monster Violetta in the chair room and the Violetta in the rock room.

Also through the second verse we see the interrogation room again, and the cop is getting insane with rage over Violetta’s refusal to talk, while she is still just singing for the camera. Violetta just looks bored with the whole thing, so the cop leaves the room and goes to talk to the detective on the other side of the two-way mirror. While they’re talking, we see Violetta in the interrogation room by herself just sitting while in the surveillance monitor we see Violetta with the full band this time, performing for the camera. We see more shots of the city in chaos and people climbing down into the sewers in search of safety.

During the first section of the bridge, we see multiple shots of the city in turmoil; a number of ‘monster’ Violettas appear superimposed on the scene in each shot, singing to the camera while the Violetta in the rock room continues to do her thing. The Violettas in the sky are all wearing gothic clothing and made-up to look incredibly pale. In the interrogation room, Violetta raises up her hands and makes a confused expression. As her hands go up, so do many pages that had been neatly piled on the table. Pages fly everywhere, and we also see a brief new scene of another faceless monster, with leavings blowing around her the same way the papers are in the other scene.

During the second part of the bridge we focus on the interrogation room. The detective has now replaced the cop in the room, and we see him taking to Violetta over the surveillance monitor. From beneath her hood we see inhumanly dark eyes and a little smirk; without warning Violetta swipes the detectives cup of hot coffee from the table, picks up the chair she was sitting on and (supposedly) smashes the two-way mirror with it – the camera cuts away right before impact. During this bit we see the meteor from the start of the video hitting the city and the entire sky lights up bright red.

As the full band slams back in for the outro, we see an assorted mash of all the different scenes from the video, from Violetta in the interrogation room to suddenly disappearing and trapping the detective in the room. He bashes on the door pleading to be released while Violetta watches. The Violetta in the rock room continues rocking as she belts out her ad-libs. Meanwhile, the people in the sewers are reacting to the bright light from the meteor crash. They look on in fear as something emerges from the wreckage they see – all we see is a silhouetted figure so we don’t know what kind of monster has emerged from the meteor. Just as the lights begin to fade, there is a rapid pull-back to outer space. We see an extended shot of this for a few seconds before the video cuts to black.

Chart Performance
"Monsters" was a much larger chart hit than expected, with Violetta's team not holding out for a chart-topper due to strong competition from newcomer Nicholas X. However, Violetta had an easy hit on her hands, debuting at #1 with 128k in sales, her biggest sales week ever and an automatic silver certification. The single's sales were heavily front-loaded, with more than half of its total sales occurring in its first two weeks. The single was Violetta's second UK #1 and third platinum seller. Digitally, it began a string of #1 hits for Violetta, with "Monsters" climbing to #1 in its second week on the digital chart. Due to being Violetta's proper comeback single, it had very strong airplay, with a top 3 peak. "Monsters" was not released in the US.

Chart Run
TOTAL: 286,574
 * Week 1: #1 - 128,492
 * Week 2: #6 - 57,636
 * Week 3: #14 - 25,431
 * Week 4: #13 - 27,497
 * Week 5: #24 - 19,866
 * Week 6: #37 - 5,790
 * Week 7: #24 - 17,879
 * Week 8: #38 - 3,982