Bruce Dickinson has released a new video for his orchestral reworking of ‘Tears Of The Dragon’, and it has already been collecting awards on the international film festival circuit.
The track appears on last year’s reimagined version of More Balls To Picasso, originally released in 1994. Following a performance at The Town Festival in São Paulo back in September 2025, Dickinson teamed up with directors Leo Liberti and Antoine de Montremy to shoot the film in a disused São Paulo brewery, an old building grand enough to pass for a renaissance hall. Joining him were his House Band of Hell and the Almai orchestra, conducted by Antonio Teoli, who also featured on the studio re-recording and lend the ballad a fuller, more cinematic weight.
Brazilian ballet dancer Renata Bardazi interprets the song on screen, and it is her presence that gives the piece much of its emotional charge. Dickinson described the shoot as “brilliant madness”, explaining that the orchestra were styled to look faintly zombified while every band member was handed an instrument to play.
The results speak for themselves. The video has already taken Best Music Video at a string of festivals including the Los Angeles Film Awards, the New York International Film Awards and the Asian Independent Film Festival, plus a Bronze at the Berlin Music Video Awards, with further nominations pending at Cannes and Tokyo Lift-Off among others.
We have always rated ‘Tears Of The Dragon’ as one of the finest moments in Dickinson’s solo catalogue, and this orchestral treatment makes a strong case for revisiting it. A song this dramatic totally deserves the visuals to match.
