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Music

12th Sep 2023

Cardi B’s new music video is one of the most expensive of all time

Rory Cashin

Cardi B’s new music video is the second most expensive from the last 20 years.

Music videos aren’t what they used to be, but that isn’t going to stop Cardi B. Due to the general demise of MTV and the skyrocketing of streaming songs, artists have generally decided that accompanying music videos aren’t nearly as necessary.

With less pressure to sell singles, those songs don’t need massively expensive music videos to help generate interest and push those sales. Despite all of that, it hasn’t stopped Cardi B from pulling out all of the stops for the video alongside her new single ‘Bongos’, which sees her reunite with her ‘WAP’ hitmaker Megan Thee Stallion.

In a recent interview with iHeartRadio, Cardi B revealed that the ‘Bongos’ video cost a whopping $2 million to produce, and even goes on to explain why it cost so much:

“I really wanted to do this in a different country, but we couldn’t because it was hurricane season. So we did it in Malibu, and Malibu always has paparazzi and everything so we hired about 20 guards, 15 guards just guarding the whole area.

“And we did geo-fencing (which detects when someone in the area is posting to social media), and stuff like that costs a lot of money.”

You can check out the finished product right here:

And in case you’re interested, here is the rundown of the most expensive music videos of all time:

  1. Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson – ‘Scream’ – $7 million
  2. Madonna – ‘Die Another Day’ – $6.1 million
  3. Madonna – ‘Express Yourself’ – $5 million
  4. Madonna – ‘Bedtime Story’ – $5 million
  5. Guns N Roses – ‘Estranged’ – $5 million
  6. Michael Jackson – ‘Black or White’ – $4 million
  7. Gwen Stefani – ‘Make Me Like You’ – $4 million
  8. Aqua – ‘Cartoon Heroes’ – $3.5 million
  9. Limp Bizkit – ‘Rollin”- $3 million
  10. Puff Daddy – ‘Victory’ – $2.7 million
  11. MC Hammer – ‘2 Legit 2 Quit’ – $2.5 million
  12. Mariah Carey – ‘Heartbreaker’ – $2.5 million
  13. Janet Jackson – ‘Doesn’t Really Matter’ – $2.5 million
  14. Busta Rhymes – ‘What’s It Gonna Be?’ – $2.4 million
  15. Celine Dion – ‘It’s All Coming Back To Me Now’ – $2.3 million
  16. Michael Jackson – ‘Bad’ – $2.2 million
  17. Backstreet Boys – ‘Larger Than Life’ – $2.1 million
  18. Cardi B – ‘Bongos’ – $2 million
  19. Missy Elliott – ‘She’s A Bitch’ – $2 million
  20. George Michael – ‘Freeeek’ – $2 million

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