Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

"Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" is a song by Spanish recording artist Regina Harper. Written by Regina and produced by Liam Howe, the song was released as a free track from Regina's official website on March 2nd 2012 as a "taster" of what to expect from the album. The song describes the relationship between a young girl and her aunt Jennifer who self-harm themselves. The "tigers" in the song are used to represent opression, but on another level represent the demons in the girls' heads. The song was inspired by the poem of the same name by the American poet Adrienne Rich.

The song, when reviewed as an album track, received many positive reviews from critics and the general public who described the song as 'informing', 'deep' and 'a masterpiece' before dubbing it to be a fan favourite from "How Many Miles To Hollywood?". Other critics claimed the song got "boring" by the time the album was released.

In June 2012, Harper said she regretted giving the track away for free so early as she hoped it would be a single. She did however announce her plans to perform it during her Hollywood Babylon Tour and release a music video for the track.

Background and Writing
Regina began reading the poetry of American feminist Adrienne Rich in 2010 and Aunt Jennifer's Tigers soon became her favourite poem and inspired the writing of the song. The track speaks of a young girl and her aunt Jennifer. Together they cut themselves and later laugh about it all over a cup of tea, while the dominating uncle remains oblivious. The "tigers" represent opression. They are seen as free, everything the two girls are not. They are also represented as whole, contrasting with the two women who are mostly represented by their hands - this symbolises their incompleteness.

Development and release
On December 25th 2012, Regina premiered a music video for the track on her official VEVO as a Christmas present for her fans. The video was reportedly shot in October, before the video for "Sydney", and was directed by David LaChapelle. Regina said she wanted to shoot a video for "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" from the moment she wrote the song. Despite Fusion Records not opting to release it as a single, they agreed to shoot a music video for promotional purposes.

Synopsis
The video begins in a police station. The station is shown to be very busy (Officers at work, people rushing in and out, phones ringing and being answered) but no sound is heard. The camera, 25 seconds into the video, pans to Regina and shows her wearing a pale pink dress. She is covered in dirt and is crying hysterically. Subtitles appear on the screen as she is depicted to say "I made a terrible mistake and I need you". The screen fades to black and the words "Four hours earlier" appear. The track begins to play as we are sent back four hours. It is dark outside as the camera shows us a house in a clean, wealthy looking neighbourhood. The camera moves from outside into a window and focuses on an alarm clock, which reads "20:12" We then see Regina in this bedroom, lying stomach-down on a bed. She has headphones on and is presumed to be studying or doing homework. She mouths the words of the song. The camera shows us clips of an older man and woman arguing downstairs in the kitchen during the first few minutes of the song. Regina attempts turning up the volume on her iPod (she is shown to be listening to "Empire of the Falling Stars" by Elice Claire) and slamming her door shut to drown out the presumed screaming. Eventually, she gives up on her work as she is finding it extremely difficult to concentrate. As the second verse begins a loud slam can be heard, over the music. Regina looks out her window to see a woman (who we can assume to be Aunt Jennifer) get into her car and drive off with great speed. Regina gulps and locks her bedroom door. But as soon as she does so, a loud knocking can be heard from the other side of the door. She slowly backs away. The subtitles "Open the door! Regina open the door!" appear on the screen. Regina closes her eyes and shakes her head. She suddenly opens them when her door is broken down and a middle-aged man is staring at her, breathing heavily. He runs towards Regina, but she manages to dodge him at first. She runs into the hall, but he is running behind her and eventually catches her from behind, his hand over her mouth. The middle 8 begins with Regina in the master bedroom, wearing the pale pink dress seen at the beginning of the video. She is looking into the mirror of a vanity table. The man walks up behind her and puts a necklace on for her. A single tear can be seen running down Regina's cheek. The screen fades out. We are then shown the man lying on the bed, with no shirt or shoes on, unbuckling his belt. Regina takes the opportunity to throw a large vase at his head, but misses. She quickly runs out of the room, down the stairs and into the living room. She reaches down the back of the couch and takes out a handgun. She stares at it while breathing heavily. The man bursts into the room and runs at Regina. She escapes into the kitchen and out the back. She runs through the back yard and into the near-by forest. He is still chasing and screaming at her. Regina is running out of breath and is seen to be shouting "Help me! Someone help me!" (shown by subtitles). She eventually stops and turns around and raises the gun. We hear a bang. Regina falls to her knees and begins crying. The song is finished now, but we are brought back to present time as Regina is in the police station, crying. Again, there is no sound. Aunt Jennifer walks in and sees Regina. She hugs her and is seen whispering something in her ear. Regina looks at her and smiles. The screen fades to black and the video has ended.

Aunt Jennifer is played by Kristine Sutherland. The man/uncle is played by Jon Hamm.