- 2023-11-22
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MUSIC
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Björk Releases New Charity Song “Oral” featuring Rosalía
Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk released a new charity song “Oral” on November 21, 2023.
She joined forces with Spanish singer-songwriter Rosalía for the song.
Proceeds from the song will help fund fund the legal fight to stop the proliferation of farmed salmon that could endanger the ecology of Iceland's native fish.
Björk wrote and recorded the song between 1997 and 2001, but the song didn't fit with her experimental albums at the time.
She shelved the track, but this time, she rediscovered it in her archives and re-recoded with Rosalía.
The track was written and produced by Björk. The accompanying music video was directed by Carlota Guerrero.
Björk said of the song in a statement, “When I was listening to the track, I was like, 'Hmm, ROSALÍA, her last album was sort of experimental reggaeton. I can really imagine her voice inside this,'. That's a better way to get a guest vocalist, who represents now, and there's this tunnel into the past, us having this kind of conversation.”
She continued, “I am offering a song me and Rosalía sang together. The profits will [go] to help the fight against fish farming in Iceland... People at the fjord Seyðisfjörður have stood up and protested against fish farming starting there. We would like to donate sales of the song to help with their legal fees. And hopefully it can be an exemplary case for others.”- She explained, “Iceland has the biggest untouched nature in Europe. And still today it has its sheep roaming free in the mountains in the summers. Its fish has swum free in our lakes, rivers, and fjords. So when Icelandic and Norwegian business men started buying fish farms in the majority of our fjords, it was a big shock and rose up as the main topic this summer. We don't understand how they had been able to do this for a decade with almost no regulations stopping them. This has already had devastating effect on wildlife and the farmed fish are suffering in horrid health conditions and since a lot of them have escaped, they have started changing the DNA in the Icelandic salmon to the worse and could eventually lead to its extinction.”
She continued, “There is still a chance to safe the last wild salmon of the north. Our group would like to dare these business men to retract their farms! We would also like to help invent and set strict regulations into Iceland's legal system to guard nature. The majority of the nation already agrees with us. So this protest is about putting the will of the people into our rule-systems.”
Donate directly at: https://www.bjork.com/aegis -
Björk shared on social media, “I am so happy to announce the release of 'oral' a single with Rosalía, tomorrow 21st of November. The profits will all go to stop open net pen fish farming in iceland. This is a 25 year old song of mine i wrote and programmed inspired by a dancehall beat (the grandmother of reggaeton) Rosalia's experiments with the genre and her incredible voice made her an obvious guest for the song. I feel blessed she said yes and she and her team are giving their work and all the profits to this battle. I think somehow there is an elegant resonance between the fact that both of our voices are the same age on the recording. I would like to thank Sega Bodega for co-producing this with me and Rosalia.”
She continued, “We have a team of people from the biggest environmental groups in Iceland with lawyers that will take on other open net pen fish farming cases, I would like to thank them all for all their hard voluntary work. Industrial salmon farming in open net pens is horrid for the environment. The farmed salmon goes through immense suffering, and it causes severe harm for our planet. This is an extraordinarily cruel way to make food. The fight against the open net pen industry is a part of the fight for the future of the planet.”
She added, “One of the most severe environmental challenge for the north this century is the acidity of the ocean. In the space of 5 years, Norwegian open sea fish farming of companies MOWI and SalMar have already damaged big areas in our fjords, both marine life , animals and plants , which will attribute to that. We can still reverse this. Our legal cases on bio-diversity, cruelty to animals and more could become exemplary cases around the world.” - source : Apple Music
