My Chemical Romance - Helena

2005

My Chemical Romance - Helena (2005) Director: Marc Webb Era: Post-Hardcore Emo / Pop-Punk Peak (2004–2006) - Mid-2000s alt-rock mainstream breakthrough era; emo and pop-punk achieving unprecedented TRL chart dominance and MTV rotation alongside theatrical, narrative-driven music video production. Exceptionally high. 'Helena' is a generation-defining artifact at the intersection of emo subculture, MTV-era video production, and narrative music video craft. Confirmed director Marc Webb, fully documented production (location, crew, dates), five MTV VMA nominations, a Kerrang! Award win, Billboard top-20 placement among all music videos since 2000, and a 4K-restored archival edition make this one of the most thoroughly documented and culturally resonant music videos of the 2000s. Essential for any archive covering alternative rock, emo, or early-2000s youth culture. Context: Released as the second single from Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge on March 8, 2005, 'Helena' arrived at the apex of emo's mainstream crossover moment. Written in memory of the Way brothers' late grandmother Elena Lee Rush, the song and video transmuted personal grief into a collective cultural ritual. The theatrical funeral-mass setting, shot on location at a real Los Angeles church with actual band fans as mourners, collapsed the boundary between artist and audience, a defining gesture of mid-2000s emo community-building. The video's TRL dominance, Kerrang! award win, and MTV VMA nominations cemented My Chemical Romance's transition from underground New Jersey post-hardcore act to global alt-rock icons, while its gothic-liturgical visual language helped define the aesthetic vocabulary of an entire generation of emo and pop-punk music video production. Director notes: Directed by Marc Webb for DNA Films; released February 14, 2005. Filmed over two days, January 7–8, 2005, at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, California. Produced by Valerie Romer; executive produced by Devin Sarno; choreography by Michael Rooney; styling by Marjan Malakpour; telecine by Robert Curreri. Fans of the band were invited to appear in the video as mourners at the funeral. An unplanned rainstorm during the exterior hearse sequence was incorporated by Webb to heighten the funerary mood. On the first day of the shoot, Webb declared it might be the best video of all time. The video was nominated for five awards at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards (Best Rock Video, Best New Artist in a Video, Best Choreography, MTV2 Award, Viewer's Choice) and won Best Video at the 2005 Kerrang! Awards. It reached number one on Total Request Live over a dozen times and was ranked #17 on Billboard's list of the Best Music Videos Since 2000. In 2024, an Alternative Press readers poll named it the best music video of the 2000s. The original footage was restored to 4K and re-released on May 16, 2025, coinciding with the Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge Deluxe Edition.