Toto: Rosanna (1982 Music Video) User Reviews

Wait, that's not rosanna?

[Calicodreamin · 6/10 · 26 October 2021]

The outfits and grainy quality definitely shout 80s, but I'm a bit confused by the gang fight, where does that come into the story? Still, a great song.

Something special

[Rodrigo_Amaro · 9/10 · 25 December 2017]

The music is pure perfection, a divine creation that hasn't been equaled and it brought Toto to stardom along with "Africa". But the video doesn't help the music all that much. My ideal video for it would be one of those corny romantic clips with some guy desperatly falling for a girl. Here, Steve Barron made a project that references "West Side Story" with two gangs fighting each other over the title girl, played by Cynthia Rhodes, at the same time the band performs the song in this strange lot while the whole action takes place. It's fine, creative but it didn't match the song idea all that much. Mr. Barron creates a nice diversion with great choreography moments (dancing and fighting), Rhodes has a wonderful presence on screen and she was spectacle as Rosanna, the lady in red who conquered many hearts but didn't seem to care for any of them. It's kinda strange seeing now for lots of reasons, it doesn't have all that much of appeal in cinematic terms but it has some fun. As stated before, the song is the main reason why folks watch the clip. Jeff Porcaro's drums and his mixture of shuffles are one of the greatest creations of all time and one of the most challenging things for new drummers to learn. I love that song! 9/10

Not a song I enjoy that much and neither a music video

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 22 September 2018]

Here we have Rosanna, the music video for the song of the same name by successful band Toto. This one is from 1982, so it is already over 35 years old. At 5.5 minutes, it is really long for a music video, but of course no Michael Jackson territory or so. So yeah, I quite like some stuff by Toto for sure, like Africa, but this one here did really almost nothing for me. Often it is the case for me that it takes a few days to decide how catchy I really think a song is, but I don't have the feeling this one will grow on me particularly in the days to come. Director is Emmy nominee Steve Barron, who worked on more than just a few prestigious projects in his long career and it's not too often you see big names like him associated with music video, even though it happens of course if you look at the likes of Paul Thomas Anderson for example and many others. The title character is played by Cynthia Rhodes who appeared in some dance movie classics, which may definitely be her forte, but she did not get in the breath of fresh air here that this music video would have needed. Same goes for the half-hearted West Side Story reference. Yeah well the movie certainly deserves better. And I also felt the Toto guys just did not fit in here visually in terms of style, message (is there really one) and tone of the movie. A bit of a shallow subject too, tough to appreciate this song as a piece of romance. Just too mediocre all for my taste. Watch and listen to something else instead. Or if you really wanna check this one out, don't be scared of sticking to the CD and skipping the video. Thumbs down.