NEWS
Zara Larsson has shared her excitement over topping this week’s TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart with Clean Bandit song ‘Symphony’ – which was first released in 2017 – due to a viral dolphin meme on the social media platform.
What’s now called the ‘Symphony’ dolphin meme has caught traction as of late for its simple execution – juxtaposing vibrant illustrations of dolphins with negative or mundane statements by users, all while the uplifting EDM-pop of ‘Symphony’ gives the joke a final kicker.
Larsson happily joined the trend by sharing her own ‘Symphony’ dolphin meme that reads “What the fuck is happening”, along with posting a collection of her favourites from the trend.
“Do you wanna be a part of my SYMPHONY,” she writes, along with an outpour of dolphin, unicorn, and rainbow emojis.
Clean Bandit themselves joined in the trend on the platform, calling the dolphins “inspiring” and asking fans through the meme: “Do you want another song with Zara?”.
‘Symphony’, first released as a Clean Bandit single in 2017, became the lead single for their second album ‘What Is Love?’ in 2018.
Clean Bandit, known for their fusion of EDM and pop with classical music instrumentation, revealed earlier this month that they were pushed by their record label to remove strings from their songs and “told to stop making pop music”.
“There was a push for us to stop having strings in our music,” Chatto told BBC, while Patterson added: “We were told to stop making pop music, as well. We were sent dance music playlists on Spotify and told ‘Your music has to sit on here – only Harry Styles can make pop music’.”
Part of the push they recalled was due to their presence as “shy and unassuming people” rather than as immediately distinctive pop stars. “We were told ‘you don’t have a face, you need to make club music’,” Patterson added, going on to recall how they began to doubt their instincts and later erased the violins for a more house sound.
“We allowed it to happen because we were like, ‘We’d rather release something than nothing’,” Chatto explained. “But the music didn’t feel like our music…In the end, we were like, what’s the point in doing anything?’”
Larsson released her fourth studio album ‘Venus’ in February this year. In an interview with NME promoting the album, she lamented the pressure placed on female pop stars to “reinvent”.
“[Ed Sheeran] has been on his ‘Maths’ journey through his whole career. For pop girls, specifically, it’s like you expect them to reinvent and reinvent and reinvent,” she stressed to NME.
“I don’t think it necessarily means you have to come up with a new side of yourself every time. The right way to do that is to, actually, not find another side, but maybe dig deeper into what you’re doing.”
Fontaines D.C. have teamed up with Rosalía for their new collaboration, Where Is Gone?.
The song features on the Irish rock band's forthcoming album, Dopamine Chamber, which arrives on Friday (16.10.26). For guitarist Carlos O’Connell, working with the Spanish superstar is particularly special because of his own Spanish roots.
He explained: “I’ve admired Rosalía ever since her debut album, which I thought was absolutely beautiful.
“What excited me most was the way she continued to preserve Spain's musical traditions, something that felt spiritually connected to what we've been trying to achieve with Irish music. Having roots in both countries, it's been really special to witness. "She's an artist who has continued to amaze me at every point in her career.”
Frontman Grian Chatten has also described the collaboration with Rosalía as one of the most memorable achievements of his career.
He revealed that he felt "humbled" when she agreed to lend her voice to the band's album.
Speaking to NPR, Grian said: “I've always felt there's something almost like a single big idea that I'm personally trying to communicate to the world before I get old and die, if that makes sense. There's one thing I think I'll spend my life trying to express. I have a feeling she has a similar outlook. … I mean, she's an amazing arranger, composer and lyricist. It means so much that she wanted to sing on something we'd put together. It's definitely one of the highlights of my career.”
Rosalía's links to Irish rock music extend beyond Fontaines D.C. She also offered inspiration and helped develop the Spanish lyrics for U2's The Mirror Maker (Rosalía), a track from their forthcoming album, Carnaval de Luz.
During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last week, she spoke about frontman Bono, saying: “I don't know him personally, but he sent me a text explaining that he was working on a new project and had written a song called The Mirror Maker."
Rosalía joked that Bono had invented a few words of his own.
She recalled telling him: “I wasn't sure what to make of it, but I told him he could create his own language if he wanted to.”
She described the opportunity to collaborate with the 66 year old music veteran as a real privilege.
She added: “Bono is a legend.
“It's amazing.”
Bono recently revealed that he was worried about seeming like a stalker when he reached out to Rosalía to ask whether he could name the song after her.
