Björk and Rosalía finally dropped their long-awaited collaboration. Today (Nov. 21), the two experimental juggernauts released “Oral.” The profits from the new song will go to combat open net pen fish farming in Iceland.
“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,” the Icelandic singer-songwriter wrote online. She continued describing the severe industrial salmon farming situation, and how it’s an “extraordinarily cruel way” to make food. She notes that Norwegian sea fish farming companies have already damaged the environment. She also urges that there’s still time to reverse these actions.
About the new song, she says that it’s a 25-year-old track that was inspired by dancehall, which she describes as “the grandmother of reggaeton.” “rosalia´s experiments with the genre and her incredible voice made her an obvious guest for the song,” she said. She continues by saying that she feels there’s an “elegant resonance” since both of their vocals were the same age at the time of recording.
Together, the duo delivered a dancehall experimental track co-produced by themselves and Sega Bodega. The music video, directed by Carlota Guerrero, features what appears to be a digital version of the two artists sword fighting against each other. They trade verses about the uncertainty of proceeding with a romance while they’re participating in martial arts. The music video credits Rosalía’s appearance as “courtesy of Columbia Records,” as the Spanish singer appears as an AI avatar.
“For this song, I thought of a video art piece exploring the discomfort of the cause they are fighting; the cruel situation going on in Björk’s native country, Iceland,” Guerrero said. “Delving into universal female rage as a motor for change, violence is explored through Bjork’s and Rosalia’s avatars. My own learning while creating this was clear; they were not fighting each other; they were training together to fight the real and bigger enemy.”
Check out the official music video for “Oral” below.