Synopsis

On her wedding day, Tori Amos appears as a bride riding through town in the back of a taxi. As the cab passes the church where she is expected, she watches ordinary lives unfold around her, including moments of intimacy, hardship, family life, and aging. The journey becomes a visual expression of hesitation and memory, contrasting the public ceremony with the private doubts of a woman unsure whether she can go through with it. The black-and-white presentation gives the video a reflective, dreamlike quality.

Factoids & Trivia

• "Jackie's Strength" was released as the second single from Amos' 1998 album, From the Choirgirl Hotel.

• The song refers to Jackie Onassis while also drawing on Amos' own fears and uncertainty about marriage. The video translates that divided perspective into the image of a bride physically passing by her wedding ceremony.

• Amos later described the video as showing her character reliving her life while traveling through her neighborhood on the day of the wedding. She regarded it as one of the more direct visual interpretations of one of her songs.

• The video uses documentary-like glimpses of everyday life, including teen pregnancy, interracial relationships, premarital intimacy, and elderly people taking medication. These scenes broaden the wedding-day story into a portrait of the community surrounding the bride.

• Its black-and-white photography distinguishes it from the more stylized, performance-centered videos associated with Amos' earlier work.