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In many ways, a collaboration between Björk and Rosalía feels obvious, even overdue. A no-brainer. In others, the two artists seem so musically divergent that a collaboration might come across as “impossible”—or at least as a bad idea. With “Oral,” these iconoclastic, unique singers prove it’s quite the opposite. And sure, maybe one would have thought that if any charity song was to be released right at this moment in time, it might have to do with supporting Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas “conflict” (or war, whatever the news is billing it as these days). But they would be mistaken. For Björk and Rosalía have chosen to pursue the only issue more evergreen than Israelis and Palestinians being diametrically opposed: the environment’s well-being. But it’s more specific than that. That’s right, it’s a song to benefit Icelandic salmon.
And yet, in keeping with the “wonderful weirdness” of both artists, the single actually makes no mention of the environment or the opposition to industrial salmon farming that it seeks to highlight. While Rosalía is from Spain, she can appreciate the cause that Björk—known as much for being Icelandic as she is for being experimental—is urgently calling attention to. In fact, Rosalía can appreciate it so much that she’s agreed to join Björk in donating all (not just “a portion of”) income made from the song to AEGIS. Per the title card statement that appears before the video:
Björk and Rosalía are donating all their rights to income generated by this song to the AEGIS non-profit organisation to combat open pen fish farming in Iceland. Their record companies have agreed to do the same. All funds raised will support legal fees for protesters, taking action to stop the development of intensive farms that harm wildlife, deform fish and pose risks to salmon’s DNA and survival. Immediate action is crucial.
Yes, yes it is. On so many environmental fronts. And though some might not see the environmental “big value” of salmon, these fish are a benchmark/health barometer of so many other things occurring in nature. Or, as the National Environmental Education Foundation puts it, “[Salmon] are nature’s gauges for detecting the health of the environment.”
If salmon are suffering, it’s not just because of the conditions they’re subjected to in open pen fish farming, but also because of the water quality around them. If there’s high levels of pollution (human-generated, of course) the salmon can’t thrive. But open pen farming does more than exploit salmon and other natural resources, it assists in destroying entire ecosystems. Not to mention obliterating genetic diversity due to the inbreeding that goes on inside those nets (with escaped farmed salmon also breeding with wild salmon to alter their DNA…for the worse). And that is what an “open pen” amounts to: nylon nets. Ones that are fixed to the ocean floor with anchors and kept afloat by buoys. The “floating cages,” as it were, can hold hundreds of thousands of fish at one time—in addition to any other waste that enters the fray of that net. This extends to fecal matter, pesticides used to kill parasites, unconsumed fish feed and the rotting corpses of the salmon that didn’t survive. All of this coagulates and accumulates at the bottom of the pens, with the waste eventually releasing into other parts of the ocean where unsuspecting ecosystems await their contamination from this senseless farming practice.
So yes, Björk and Rosalía’s cause is urgent. And yet, the song itself came about over the course of decades, with Björk writing it between the Homogenic and Vespertine eras. Alas, she never felt that it fit in with the sonic motifs of those albums and decided to “put in on salt” until the right circumstances arose to finish creating it. Evidently, destiny wanted her to wait long enough for Rosalía to come into musical existence. Because this was the musical partnering that could shepherd the track to its final form.
The video, directed by Carlota Guerrero, mostly reads like a visual reinterpretation of Madonna’s 2002 video for “Die Another Day,” with Björk and Rosalía serving as one another’s adversarial opponents against the backdrop of a white room. What’s more, there definitely appears to be some deepfaking at play (another trend recently promoted by Sevdaliza and Grimes for the “Nothing Lasts Forever” video). As their choreographed “fight-dance” initially finds them battling one another MMA-style, by the end of the video, they decide to join forces and fight the common enemy that appears to be observing both of them as they then brandish their swords/kick at the camera. In many respects, this feels like a poignant metaphor for the ways in which humans find needless sources of contempt for one another, when the real problem is their shared oppressor. The ones “in charge,” Big Brother, etc. Whatever name one wants to give to “The Man” keeping us all down, and ensuring we’re distracted by our petty rivalries and competitions with one another.
While the song itself doesn’t call out fish directly, something about the word “oral,” therefore the frequent mention of mouths, feels evocative of a fish, with their constantly open mouths sucking up whatever happens to come into them while swimming. Per Björk, however, this is a love song. As she herself remarked, “My interpretation of the lyrics are that you’re wondering about revealing your feelings to a man, maybe crossing over from a dream state… It’s totally that moment when you’ve met someone, and you don’t know if it’s friendship or something more. So you become, I guess, aroused. And you become very aware of your lips. That’s maybe why I called the song ‘Oral’. You don’t know what the consequences are if you act. Sometimes fantasy can be amazing, and that’s enough; you don’t have to also do things.” In truth, sometimes the fantasy is what makes you lust after a person in the first place. When cold, sobering reality gets involved, things tend not to be as alluring.
Painting a surreal picture from the outset, Björk opens the song with the lines, “Your mouth floats above my bed at night/My own private moon.” Rosalía then joins in on the first verse to soothe, “Just because the mind can make up whatever it wants/Doesn’t mean that it’ll never come true/Won’t ever happen.” Here, too, there is a double meaning that can be inferred. Beyond talking about making a relationship dream come true, there’s the idea that, since this is a “charity song,” the lyrics are also intended to promote the belief in possibility…for a brighter future. And the key to any such bright future is environmental well-being.
Joining in on the chorus together, the duo sings, “Is that the right thing to do? (oh, oh)/Oh, I just don’t know/I just don’t know/Is that the right thing to do? (oh, oh)/Oh, I just don’t know/I just don’t know.” Whether one wants to see this as a girl talking about if she should confess her feelings to the object of her affection or as being from the perspective of a miraculously morally-aware industrialist, well, that depends on one’s mood.
More dual meaning is found in a lyric like, “Let me introduce one to the other/The dream and the real, get them acquainted.” In other words, there can be a place where the “dream” of a non-capitalistic, non-rapaciously industrial world can merge, if only vaguely, with reality. Or, yeah, a girl can make her dream of kissing the boy she likes (“a mouth to a mouth,” for more fishy visuals) come true.
Another repeated line throughout the song is, “Just because she can/There’s a line there, I can’t cross it.” This, too, seems applicable to how more corporate entities should be thinking. Knowing when they’ve crossed the line from garden-variety assholes to outright monsters. So monstrous, in fact, that it takes a powerful duo like Björk and Rosalía to come at them with their swords.
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Genna Rivieccio
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