Two of Europe’s most innovative pop singers, Björk and Rosalía, have collaborated on a new song to benefit activists fighting against industrial salmon farming in Björk’s native Iceland.
The song’s title has not been announced, but it will be released later this month; a 75-second preview has been published online.
In a statement accompanying the announcement, Björk wrote: “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 heralded Iceland as “the biggest untouched nature in Europe and still today it has its sheep roaming free in the mountains; in the summers its fish have swum free in our lakes, rivers and fjords. So when Icelandic and Norwegian businessmen 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.”
In 2022, a merger worth £118m was completed between the two largest salmon fisheries in Iceland, with Ice Fish Farm acquiring Laxar Fiskeldi; a majority stake in the company is held by Norwegian company Måsøval. Ice Fish Farm controls the Seyðisfjörður fjord as well as three others in the east of the country, and aims to process 10m salmon each year.
This industrial farming of salmon, Björk claims, “has already had a 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 for the worse, and could eventually lead to its extinction.”
Ahead of the merger, Ice Fish Farm chief executive Guðmundur Gíslason said: “The long-term goal is to create a company that delivers high quality premium salmon with high efficiency and full respect to nature.” The Guardian has contacted Ice Fish Farm for a response to Björk’s criticisms.
Björk concluded: “Our group would like to dare these businessmen to retract their farms! We would also like to help invent and set strict regulations into Iceland’s legal system to guard nature.” She claimed: “The majority of the nation already agrees with us so this protest is about putting the will of the people into our rule-systems.”
Björk has long been a strident environmental activist. In 2008 she founded the Náttúra Foundation to support Iceland’s natural habitats and protest against aluminium factories being built there, and in 2015 campaigned against the construction of an energy project in the country’s highlands, calling for a national park to be created in its stead. She has celebrated the natural world in her music, and has supported activist Greta Thunberg, saying of her anthology The Climate Book in 2022: “I’m inspired and sad because the situation is worse even than we thought it was, but there are some hope-inspiring moments there, to encourage us to act.”
The song marks her first collaboration with Spanish singer Rosalía, who has become a global star in recent years for her bold interpretation of various Latin music styles. She credited Björk as an inspiration after winning a Latin Grammy award in 2018, saying: “I want to thank women like Lauryn Hill … Björk, Kate Bush … shout out to all the women in the industry that have taught me that I could do this because thanks to them I am here.” Björk has expressed admiration in turn, telling Spanish newspaper El País that Rosalía had “activated” wider enthusiasm for Spanish-language music.
Their collaboration is Björk’s first release since her 2022 album Fossora, which she recorded in her home country and described as an “Iceland album” for its engagement with folk traditions and nature.
