Emiliana Torrini - Gollum's Song

Those who have seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy may have recognised at the end of the second movie (The Two Towers), the voice of Emiliana on the end's title theme, "Gollum's song". With this special feature, we will go back in time and take a look at Emiliana's participation to this incredible soundtrack.

Three years after the release of her first album, "Love in the Time of Science" (1999), there were still no news from Emiliana and the announcement of a collaboration on the soundtrack of the Two Towers, came as a big surprise for everyone.

We can wonder about the fact that the composer, Howard Shore (who created the whole soundtrack for the trilogy) decided to work with the singer. First of all, at that time, Emiliana wasn't a very known artist and except for some countries like England, or her country, Iceland, she's not yet known as the famous indie singer she will become. But still, Howard Shore has a very clear explanation about this.

"I wanted to use a voice from the North, especially Iceland, because I thought that the special sound of the dialect made it a perfect choice to perform a song about Gollum."

Paul Broucek (producer of the original soundtrack) even says they were very lucky to have found a voice like Emiliana's. And yes they were lucky! The song was to have been performed by Björk, but she had to decline because of her pregnancy and Torrini was credited in the DVD.

And we can say the choice was a good one as Emiliana totally reflected the melancholy of the character and his growing schizophrenia. Gollum is both a hateful and a can't-help-feeling-for-him character, with his incredible sadness, and the evil that eats him from inside. The song is a fantastic tribute to him, and Emiliana shows again how incredibly subtle and b her voice is, especially in the last words of the song "when you face the end alone, you are lost, you can never go home". Howard Shore said about the recording.

"Emiliana did very different versions of the song, and all of them were incredible, fabulous, impossible to forget."

The music video, that you can see in our media section, gives even more sense to this song. During the video, we can feel the darkness and the sadness of the song, and when Emiliana appears, she's always filmed in the dark.

Funny thing is that Emiliana may have done an unexpected come back with this song, as a lot of people discovered her by listening to the soundtrack, which was a huge hit in 2002. Saying that Howard Shore kind of "put her back on track" is a bit too much, but after this collaboration, she did work with Thievery Corporation, and with Kylie Minogue on the hit-single "Slow". Then two years after, she came back with her new album "Fisherman's Woman", six years after the first one.

Video

Gollum's Song : official video

Photos

Emiliana at New York, for The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers movie premiere.

Lyrics

Where once was light
Now darkness falls
Where once was love
Love is no more
Don't say goodbye
Don't say I didn't try

These tears we cry
Are falling rain
For all the lies you told us
The hurt, the blame!
And we will weep to be so alone
We are lost
We can never go home

So in the end
I'll be what I will be
No loyal friend
Was ever there for me

Now we say goodbye
We say you didn't try

These tears you cry
Have come too late
Take back the lies
The hurt, the blame!

And you will weep
When you face the end alone
You are lost
You can never go home
You are lost
You can never go home