O' Valley Of Plentyyyyy: 'Toss A Coin To Your Witcher' Is An Intentional Earworm
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
An apology for what we're about to do. But it's time to "Toss A Coin To Your Witcher."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOSS A COIN TO YOUR WITCHER")
JOEY BATEY: (Singing) Toss a coin to your Witcher, oh valley of plenty. Oh, valley...
GARCIA-NAVARRO: This earworm is epic. It's from the Netflix series "The Witcher," a medieval tale about a musclebound, leather-clad blond fellow who has supernatural powers. He's paid to slay the monsters that plague poor villagers. And his exploits are detailed by an enthusiastic bard.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOSS A COIN TO YOUR WITCHER")
BATEY: (Singer) A champion prevailed, defeated the villain. Now pour him some ale. Toss a coin to your Witcher, oh valley....
KATHRYN VANARENDONK: It is really like a head banger about freelance work, basically.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's Kathryn VanArendonk. She's a staff writer at vulture.com. And she has watched the series. Oh, yes, she has.
VANARENDONK: I find it trashy in the way that I had always wished "Game Of Thrones" would be more of.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Like many across social media right now, she found that her mind seized on this song - over and over. She says it's a good song. And it's campy.
VANARENDONK: There is a line about how he puts an elf on a shelf. And the first time I heard it, I thought, that cannot be right. I have to be having some kind of hallucination.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: If so, judging from all the videos online, it's a hallucination others really want to be in.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Singing) He thrust every elf far back on the shelf, high up on the mountain from whence they came.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Singing) ...Friend of humanity. So give him rest.
BATEY: (Singing) Toss a coin to your Witcher, oh valley of plenty. Oh, valley of plenty, oh. Toss a coin...
SONYA BELOUSOVA: We needed a big and epic and super memorable chorus.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Blame them. That's Sonya Belousova. She and Giona Ostinelli composed this song to be catchy. See, in the show, word of the Witcher spreads along with the song. As for its popularity in real life...
GIONA OSTINELLI: It's amazing to see how much they're loving it, embracing it, covering it and having...
BELOUSOVA: Yeah, all the...
OSTINELLI: ...Fun with it.
BELOUSOVA: ...Covers that they're sending us every single day is just - it's so much fun.
OSTINELLI: It's a gift.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOSS A COIN TO YOUR WITCHER")
OMSK CHOIR: (Singing in non-English language).
BELOUSOVA: There is the Russian folk choir. That one is brilliant. Then there was another one, which was people from all over the world singing together in one video. And that was a beautiful performance.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOSS A COIN TO YOUR WITCHER")
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing) Oh, valley of plenty, oh. Toss a...
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Vulture writer Kathryn VanArendonk also has her favorite.
VANARENDONK: There's a metal cover of it by a guy named Dan Vasc. I was not expecting to find this quite moving. And yet when he gets into the final chorus and really lets loose on the high notes, I clapped. I clapped by myself in my basement.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOSS A COIN TO YOUR WITCHER")
DAN VASC: (Singing) Whoa. Toss a coin to your Witcher...
VANARENDONK: One measure of a great song is when lots and lots of people just want to sing it themselves. I think the remixes and the covers of it are a testament to that. Also, I have just kept singing it. It has made this show stick in people's minds in - I think in a different way.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOSS A COIN TO YOUR WITCHER")
VASC: (Singing) Yeah.
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