Sophia Michaels
Inside and out, Meghan Trainor is in her zone. As she shares her fifth studio album Takin’ It Back – a return-to-form that reignites the doo-wop-inspired influence she crashed onto the scene with on her 2015 debut Title – the singer and songwriter is celebrating years of personal growth with a power-reclaiming video for the self-love anthem “Made You Look,” all about how you can’t keep your eyes off her.
“After having a baby, I struggled really hard to feel sexy. I actually wrote this song when I was ass-naked singing the chorus in the shower,” Trainor shared in a statement. “I can wear all of these gorgeous things, but I look better without all of that shit on. I wrote a self-love anthem for myself. Even though you had a baby, went through it, and your body shows it, you’re still sexy.”
In the “Made You Look” video, the singer cycles through fashionable statement outfits shown off as she sits through a press conference, lounges on the hood of a bright pink convertible with her husband Daryl Sabara behind the wheel, and pampers herself and slams through choreography in a room full of TikTok stars and influencers from Drew Afualo and Chris Olsen to JoJo Siwa and Scott Hoying.
“When I do my walk, walk/I can guarantee your jaw will drop, drop/’Cause they don’t make a lot of what I got, got/Ladies if you feel me, this your bop, bop,” Trainor singers, sharing the wealth of self-love. “I could have my Gucci on/I could wear my Louis Vuitton/But even with nothing on/Bet I made you look.”
For Trainor, Takin’ It Back represents what her career and life can look like when she’s in control, barring external voices and opinions from influencing her creative output and self-view. “I tried to do the doo-wop feel I had at the beginning of my career, but the 2022 version of it,” she shared of the album. “This is from the new Meghan who is a wife and mom with a baby. This is from me right now. I decided to give the people what they want, but with my spices added to it. I wanted to make my Title 2.0.”
Speaking to Rolling Stone earlier this year, Trainor explained the importance of reclaiming her power – even though the process was more “fake it til you make” than an immediate shift into bad bitch mode. “I just felt like anything I ever achieved is all gone. I haven’t been out in public and [for] so long trying to be safe, and it crippled me a little bit with my confidence,” she said. “And so coming back with music, I was also so hard on myself. I thought all these songs were trash. Every idea I would come up with, I would say, ‘Is this trash or amazing?’ ‘Is this garbage or is this dope?’ And everyone was like, ‘This is your best work yet.’ I think when I started seeing [and] hearing people that don’t have to be nice to me tell me that this music is good, that’s when I was like, ‘Maybe I do have something special.’ ”
