We should pay for things with clouds!Photo: Felipe Ramirez AmigoBjörk is staging a three-day karaoke marathon — but not for fun, y’alls. It’s a protest against a Canadian energy firm taking over an Icelandic one, which Björk says amounts to a sell-off of her country’s natural resources. (Oh snarf!)
This account from Agence France-Presse reads like a Saturday Night Live sketch:
The captain of the Icelandic handball team, a 70-year-old environmental campaigner, and an Icelandic pop star and gay icon were among those who karaoked on Thursday.
The comedian-turned-mayor of Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, Jon Gnarr, also took part in the event with the other half of his former comedy duo.
Wow. (Who knew “karaoked” was even a verb?)
Canadian company Magma Energy will soon have a 98.5 percent stake in HS Orka, the Icelandic company that produces about a 10th of the country’s electricity. And Magma would be entitled to use geothermal energy fields for the next 65 years. That is, unless you fly to Reykjavik right now and put in your bid for “It’s Oh So Quiet.” (Singing continues ’til Saturday night.) Icelanders are pissed because they don’t want their energy sources sold off; plus, the political party behind the deal contributed to Iceland’s major economic collapse in late 2008.
Björk hopes the karaoke-fest will get 35,000 people (about 11 percent of Iceland’s population) to sign a petition urging the overturn of the Orka sale. She has roughly 28,000 signatures so far. Iceland Review quotes a press release inviting all manner of mystical people to sing: “Elves, hidden people, sportspeople, hobby musicians and professionals … everyone who cares for Iceland, come and join forces and perform a powerful ode to the nature of Iceland. Let’s bring our natural resources back to us with song.”
Björk has karaoked several songs so far, including a cover of “Love Will Tear Us Apart”:
