Watch Jessie Reyez Confront ICE for Love in Potent New ‘Far Away’ Video

Jessie Reyez depicts the harrowing experience of losing one’s love to deportation in her potent new song “Far Away.” The track will appear on her forthcoming debut studio album via FMLY/Island, which is due out next year.

In the Peter Huang-directed clip, the Colombian-Canadian singer dances alone while her partner is seen separately, giving a frightened stare into the camera. As the lyrics unfold, Reyez tells the story of lasting love while her partner waits for his papers. The visual flashes back to the couple happily slow dancing at a party, before her partner is violently apprehended in an ICE raid.

“I feel what you feel when you’re far away/When you’re far away,” she sings on the heartfelt chorus. “It’s been a hundred days since I’ve kissed your face.”

While the song details the pain of being ripped apart from one’s love, it’s also a yearning ballad, with Reyez’s sultry singing kindling the flame despite the lovers’ distance.

“Attachment to someone is both something beautiful and something painful. Imagine finally finding your home in another human being but they’re stuck on the other side of this rock we’re all on,” wrote Reyez in a statement.

“We search for our counterpart and If we are lucky enough, we find a home in somebody else,” she continues. “The sad part is that we will inevitably be ripped apart — whether we are separated by borders or, due to the nature of our corporal disposition to death, we’re eventually forced apart when we die. Considering that death is inherent to human frailty, wouldn’t it be nice if ‘goodbyes’ weren’t forced upon us while we still have the gift of life and love? Especially by invisible lines deemed ‘borders’?

“The song really sat into its identity when I collaborated with [director] Peter Huang. I’m really happy he accepted the challenge to make this video much more rooted in a visceral ‘goodbye’; an early, unnecessary, painful goodbye. Love will always hurt when you love from far away.”

“Far Away” follows the release of single “Imported” featuring 6lack and her 2018 EP, Being Human in Public.