Troye Sivan is heading back to the dance floor, although this time, he is taking the party several centuries into the past. The Australian pop star released “Party” on Sept. 18, pairing the euphoric new single with an extravagant medieval inspired music video filled with knights, dancing, sword fights and uninhibited celebration.
Watch the official “Party” music video on YouTube
“Party” serves as the second single from Sivan’s forthcoming fourth studio album, She’s the Best, which is scheduled to arrive Oct. 9. It follows the album’s title track, whose Gordon von Steiner directed video featured Nicole Kidman and introduced the singer’s latest creative chapter in August.
Musically, “Party” is a pounding electro dance track built around a prominent sample of Madonna’s 2000 hit “Music.” Sivan conceived the song around the hypnotic experience of hearing repetitive dance music in the environment where it makes the most sense: a crowded dance floor. He has said the inspiration also reaches back to the bush doofs he experienced while growing up in Melbourne, capturing the feeling of a night that keeps moving from one place to another without a clearly defined beginning or ending.
That sense of endless celebration becomes literal in the accompanying visual. Longtime collaborator Gordon von Steiner directs the clip, which was filmed at a castle in Berkeley, England. Sivan appears as a medieval knight surrounded by an increasingly unruly gathering of revelers, transforming a historical setting into something closer to a sweaty modern nightclub. Sword fighting, choreography and lavish period imagery collide with the track’s contemporary dance production, giving the video an intentionally playful clash between past and present.
The visual also features narration from Sir Ian McKellen, whose voice gives the film an almost storybook quality before the proceedings descend further into hedonistic celebration. His participation adds another layer to the video’s exploration of queer history, connecting two generations of openly gay artists within a story centered on community, freedom and shared space.
For Sivan, however, the medieval setting is more than an elaborate excuse for costumes and spectacle. He explained that he and von Steiner kept returning to the idea that partying can hold particular significance for queer people. Nightlife, he noted, can be one of the first spaces where queer people find themselves surrounded by others like them, turning the dance floor into a place of liberation as well as entertainment. The pair then pushed that idea further by imagining what the same instinct to gather, dance and let loose might have looked like generations ago.
That perspective gives “Party” a deeper thread beneath its deliberately excessive exterior. The video presents celebration almost as a timeless ritual, suggesting that the desire to lose yourself in music, movement and other people is hardly a modern invention. In Sivan’s hands, the castle becomes less of a historical recreation and more of a fantasy nightclub where rules and eras temporarily disappear.
The track also brings together a sizable group of collaborators, including Luka Kloser, Elvira Anderfjärd, Tove Burman, Leland, Tyde Levi, Rob Feher and Styalz Fuego. It marks Sivan and Tyde’s first official release together after years of informally sharing music while living under the same roof, according to Sivan’s label.
“Party” continues the dance driven direction that helped define Sivan’s acclaimed Something to Give Each Other era. His 2023 album produced tracks including “Rush,” “One of Your Girls” and “Got Me Started,” with von Steiner also directing the videos for all three. The “Rush” visual later earned Sivan and von Steiner a Grammy nomination for best music video.
With “Party,” Troye Sivan takes the liberating energy of queer nightlife and imagines it without a time limit. Between Madonna inspired dance production, medieval decadence and Sir Ian McKellen’s narration, the video turns a simple night out into something grander: a celebration of the spaces where people have always gone to dance, connect and briefly leave the outside world behind.
