Music director behind Lola Young's Messy surprised by success

You might not know her name but chances are you've seen Sarah Dattani Tucker's work - more than 40 million have at least.

She's the creative director behind the video for Lola Young's Messy music video, the track that's earned the singer her first UK number one.

Shot on film, the visualiser shows Lola performing in a bare room with an enormous cake which, by the end, has been destroyed.

"The concept is inspired by intrusive thoughts," she says.

"The room is empty because it's supposed to represent a neutral space, like your head space."

It was one of seven films Sarah made for the pop star to accompany tracks from her second album, This Wasn't Meant for You Anyway.

Sarah's also worked with Arlo Parks and says she never imagined she could do this kind of job, let alone reach this level of success.

Part of that, she says, is due to her Gujarati heritage.

"Sometimes people don't necessarily know where to place you," she tells BBC Newsbeat.

"As a South Asian in the music industry, I often feel really misunderstood.

"There's so few of us in the wider industry."

Sarah was born and raised just outside of Manchester to a British dad and a Gujarati mum who was born in Uganda.

At school, Sarah says she loved art but was never shown how she might be able to turn that into a career.

"I did not come from a family of creatives," she says.

"I don't want to stereotype in any way, but I would say most of my family are like accountants or pharmacists."

And while she says she was never discouraged from pursuing her passion, when she took her first steps in the industry "family members definitely didn't fully understand exactly what my job was".

"I definitely had to keep reminding everyone that this is a real job."

Feeling misunderstood wasn't limited to school and family life though. Even now Sarah says she can feel out of place in the music industry.

"The music industry is so based on genre, and sometimes I've felt like people look at me and they're like, 'oh, you can't really work on this or that'.

"I've definitely really struggled with it. It's been really hard."

The latest diversity report by UK Music recorded that in 2024, 7.6% of people working in the music industry identified as Asian.

The group represents all sectors of the industry and noted there had been "positive movement in the right direction", with people from minority backgrounds now representing more than 25% of the workforce - up from 15.6% when the survey started in 2016.

"Nonetheless barriers still exist and we must continue to seek change," the report said.

"There is a lot of misunderstanding and lack of acknowledgement sometimes," Sarah says.

And a lack of acknowledgement is something she'd like to address not just for British Asians, but the people working behind the scenes in the music industry too.

Lola Young is up for best pop act at Saturday's Brit Awards and, until 2019, music videos had a chance to be nominated for prizes too.

That award, British Video of the Year, no longer exists - it was last won by Little Mix for their Woman Like Me video.

Other big awards like the Grammys still make a point of celebrating music videos and even go one step further with an award for best recording package, which goes to the artistic director behind a project.

This year it was won by Charli XCX and her creative director Imogene Strauss for Brat, which took on a life of its own - even being named Collins Dictionary 2024 word of the year.

"That's such a special moment because that campaign and the creative behind it is incredible," Sarah says.

She'd like to see would like to see similar opportunities for recognition at the Brits.

"It would be nice to have that kind of recognition, just because it is such a big production.

"There's so many parts to a campaign, it's so multifaceted."

The Brit Awards have not yet responded to Newsbeat's request for comment.

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