The International Olympic Committee commissioned a song by Björk specially for the 2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony . The singer revealed that the committee asked her to do a kind of " Ebony and Ivory " or " We Are the World " type of song , which are " smashing tunes " according to her , but she thought , " ' Maybe there 's another angle to this ' . When I tried to write an Olympic lyric , though , it was full of sports socks and ribbons . I ended up pissing myself laughing " . Then , she called Sjón , an Icelandic poet who had previously collaborated with her on songs such as " Bachelorette " from her fourth studio album '' Homogenic '' ( 1997 ) . When she said to him that they would need something " suitably epic " for the Olympics , the poet even took a short course about Greek mythology at Reykjavík University . " Oceania " was the last song recorded for '' Medúlla '' . Björk said about the song : " I am incredibly honoured to have been asked to write a song and sing it at the Olympics . The song is written from the point of view of the ocean that surrounds all the land and watches over the humans to see how they are doing after millions of years of evolution . It sees no borders , different races or religion which has always been at the core of these games " . During an interview with British radio station XFM , Björk explained its recording process , saying work on " Oceania " was kept being delayed because she wanted to do it especially for the Olympics . During the last day of mixing , she thought she needed " sirenes " , like in Greek mythology . She called up an English choir to record these sounds . The singer had done an arrangement for piano on the computer that was impossible for a piano to play , and she got them to sing it . Then , she also called up beatboxer Shlomo , who was recommended to her as " the new bright hope of the hip hop scene " . He went to record the next day and Björk asked him to do a techno tango beat , which he did . Recalling her work on the song until her last day of mixing , she commented , " That was the most fun part , in the end . Sometimes it 's good for you to work with a gun against your head and just go for it , because you can sometimes sit too long with ideas . Sometimes adrenaline is a good thing . " The song was written at the ocean 's point of view , detailing the human 's evolution . According to Jason Killingsworth from '' Paste '' magazine , it calls listeners ' attention to " Mother Oceania " from which the singer believes all life emerged , whilst she sings : " You have done well for yourselves / Since you left my wet embrace / And crawled ashore … " . The song anchors the midsection of '' Medúlla '' , " jubilantly punctuated with bubbling synth and propelled by the rolling , spitfire cadence of Rahzel 's beatbox " , according to the reviewer . The last line from the song , " Your sweat is salty / And I am why / Your sweat is salty / And I am why " , is about how " we were all little jellyfish or whatever before we made it on to land " , according to the singer . Elthan Brown from '' New York '' magazine considered these lyrics as " frank sensuality " . " Oceania " also features The London Choir . '' Entertainment Weekly '' s writer Chris Willman commented that " the computer-enhanced choir behind Björk suggests a cosmic harem of pleased dolphins . Here she imagines herself as the sea itself , proud of all the belegged creatures she 's spit out onto land over the last hundred million years . It 's the nearest evolutionists have come to having their own gospel tune "
2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony
2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony
Oceania (song)