Mxmtoon dazzled at 88rising’s Head In The Clouds festival in August. Uproxx called her set “charming,” and that’s the most applicable adjective for her new performance of “Mona Lisa” for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert‘s #LATESHOWMEMUSIC series.
Fueled by a delightful ukulele and Mxmtoon’s dreamy vocals, “Mona Lisa” charts her endearing (and relatable) ambition to be her own muse or maybe even someone else’s. In the video, she sings in a hazy purple room about her default mode to play “the part of Shakespeare” and “hide behind the ink and pen” while constructing fantasies about other people. “I’m so tired of being a book on the shelf / Tired of stories for somebody else,” she sings in the pre-chorus, a proposition tied in a perfect bow by the chorus: “I wanna be Mona Lisa / The kinda girl that you can dream of.”
Mxmtoon released her album Rising in May. She explained how “Mona Lisa” came together in an interview with Uproxx.
“It came together very naturally!” she said. “I had the idea of wanting to make a song that could reference a bunch of famous artists and their art, and I took it and ran. I worked alongside producer Pom Pom and artist Rosie to make ‘Mona Lisa,’ and we wanted it to be a power anthem for young women to see the power of self-love.”
Watch her “Mona Lisa” performance above.