When I first heard Meghan Trainor’s new bop, also known as the future first lip-sync song on the next season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, I thought, Pop music is dead. But now, on the release day of the track’s music video, Miss Trainor’s “Mother” has me issuing a formal retraction. The feature-film-quality video stars Kris Jenner in a blonde bob wig, shimmying to a “Mr. Sandman” beat and mouthing the song’s earworm lyrics. “I am your mother / You listen to me / Stop all that mansplainin’, no one’s listening.” The cameo is random and seemingly has the two IRL moms vying for the title of Most (Narcissistic) Mother.
Reader: This is camp to the highest degree. It’s Mother at its most narcissistic. Despite the heavy cringe factor, Trainor continues to successfully lean into her latest gimmick. I mean, the intro has a title card in flashy lights that says, in all caps, “MEGHAN TRAINOR IS LITERALLY MOTHER.” Red-carpet wanderer and man named Chris Olsen is even in the credits, for no reason! His role? “Icon and bestie.” Meghan Trainor is not Mother. But her commitment to the bit sort of is.
