Kristina Menissov Turns Up the Heat With “Summer”: A Hot-Girl Summer Anthem Shot Like a Vogue Campaign

The international triple-threat closes her Lamborghini door on pop clichés and drops the season’s most aspirational music video

Kristina Menissov presents “Summer” as aspiration: Bare feet on sand, salt in her braids, a blue convertible parked behind her like it drove itself out of a 1990s Versace ad. Set against the California coastline, the accompanying music video unfolds across Aliso Beach in Laguna and Malibu, California with an intentionally editorial lens. And that’s the whole point.

After a string of iTunes-charting singles and a YouTube catalog that includes a million-plus-view of her latest music video “Geisha,” she could’ve played it safe. Instead, she made “Summer”: part hot pop single, part cinematic thesis on what “hot girl summer” looks like when it grows up, gets expensive, and refuses to perform for the male gaze.

Directed by Bakhodir Yuldashev and shot with the polish of a luxury summer campaign, “Summer” deliberately sidesteps the visual language we’ve come to expect from beach-set pop videos. Yuldashev, known for his work with New Way Family Inc, shoots “Summer” like it’s a feature film, not a 3-minute single. Together they cast friends, not extras. Which makes sense, cause hot girl summer wouldn’t exist without friendship.

It feels less like a party and more like a memory of one.

That distinction matters because her work has increasingly centered on image as storytelling rather than decoration. If the visuals are all sun-soaked confidence, the track backs it up. Trained in Italy with roots in Kazakhstan and Ethiopia, she brings the same classical vocal control that powered earlier singles like “Geisha” (#94) and “Her Story”. But “Summer” isn’t operatic. It’s breezy, rhythmic, and built for convertibles with the top down.

Kristina’s background brings together influences that don’t naturally belong in one lane, and the song follows suit: it doesn’t beg for attention. It assumes you’re already looking. That’s the difference. While “Anyway You Want” proved she could speak the language of love and “Hands” landed her on the “Dance Rivals” soundtrack, “Summer” feels like an artist in full possession of her image. She’s not auditioning for pop stardom. She’s curating it.

The Concept: editorial, dreamy, expensive

The result is a high-gloss story arc that moves from playful daytime freedom to golden-hour intimacy. Think editorial, dreamy but expensive. Sponsored by Impress Swim, stocked with refreshing Alani Nu drinks and protected by Naked Sundays SPF, all of it integrated without feeling like an ad. Fruits, sunlight, and texture made it editorial rather than performative.

Kristina was blunt about what she wanted to avoid in “Summer”: no objectification, no exaggerated behavior, no cliché ‘music video’ aesthetics. The luxury and femininity exist effortlessly. The convertible isn’t about showing off but part of the lifestyle, a natural extension of freedom, confidence, and movement.

This isn’t about selling sex. It’s about selling a world. A sun-soaked, cinematic dream where feminine power, freedom, and desire collide. Women stepping into their most radiant, confident selves as the camera glides through a world of luxury, beauty, and ownership.

The Cast: Friends, Not Props

Scenes roll like a mood board come to life: Malibu car rides with Caysey and her 376K followers, Aiya Hammond and her 262K followers. The surf-girl sequence isn’t posed. It’s Anastasia Chuba walking into the water for real, board under arm, catching light and texture in the waves. Wet skin, natural glow, wind, water, movement. Hot dancers on the beach and bright colors in the makeup replace the clean-girl aesthetic.

The vibe is feminine power, freedom, and desire colliding, but it’s also just… friends. Girls eating fruit on the beach, laughing over Alani Nu drinks, driving down the PCH, surfing into the sunset with silhouettes that belong on a fragrance ad.

Stylist Anna Gupta and HMUA Armine Navasardyan keep everything cohesive. The video was designed to create highly aesthetic, shareable moments that live beyond YouTube, and it shows. Every shot could be a still.

The Sound: Classical Control, Pop Instinct

Vocally, she doesn’t oversell it. For this track she holds back, but the delivery is modern. Produced by Andrew Lane whose credits run from pop to hip-hop, and Cooper Philip’s vocal producing and background vocals give the hook its airy lift.

The production is warm and golden, with a bassline that feels like heat rising off asphalt.

It’s the kind of track that goes with both a TikTok dance and a road trip. It works on the rooftop and the beach where everyone’s already looking good and just needed a soundtrack to prove it.

The Statement: Owning Her Hot Girl Summer

“Summer” is giving you the luxury, the body, the beach. It gives you everything, just without the cliché.

The golden-hour scenes are where the video locks in. Soft but powerful. Following a woman who fully owns her hot girl summer, moving through sun-soaked moments of friendship and desire where everything feels effortless, VOGUE, and entirely hers.

The Verdict: The Season Starts Now

Kristina Menissov has been here. Vogue LATAM spreads. International fashion credits. A résumé that zigzags from classical training to Hollywood soundtracks. But “Summer” feels like the moment she stops code-switching between model and musician and just shows everything she is.

Is it a hot girl summer? Yeah. But it’s also a “you can look, but you can’t touch” summer.

And if the paparazzi are going to chase anyone down the PCH this year, it’s the girl in the blue Lamborghini who made the whole season look this good.

If Kristina’s earlier releases introduced the artist, “Summer” may be the project that introduces the world she’s been building all along.

“Summer” is out now (June 19) with Drew Right Music Inc

Photo credits:

Behind the scenes of “Summer” music video

Photographers: Anna Gupta @photoart_by_anna

Jonothan Ochoa @here_is_johny

Chayton Ohanou @chaytonohanou

Stylist @annaguptaofficial @agp.style

Wardrobe @thearchshow @imngo @impress_swim @herwin_cardoza @annagupta_resort

PR: Valentina Gurova @valentinagurova head of PR Aliyans Media Group @pr_aliyans & Cory Couture @corycoutureproductions