Queendom

Queendom
Song
Artist	AURORA
Album	Infections of a Different Kind - Step 1 Music for the Free Spirits Sky: Concert in the Light
Released	April 16, 2018
Recorded	2017
Genre	Alternative Electropop
Length	3:27 3:52 (Harp Version) 3:51 (Ambient)
Label	Decca Records Glassnote Petroleum Records
Writer(s)	Aurora Aksnes Couros Sheibani Fiona Bevan Jakwob
Producer(s)	AURORA Magnus Skylstad Couros Sheibani Jakwob Odd Martin Skålnes (Harp Version)

Singles Chronology
Previous	"Scarborough Fair"
Next	"Forgotten Love"

Infections of a Different Kind – Step 1 Chronology
Next	"Forgotten Love"

Music for the Free Spirits (EP) Chronology
Previous	"Forgotten Love"
Next	"Daydreamer"

"Queendom" is the thirteenth single released by AURORA and the first single from her second studio album, Infections of a Different Kind - Step 1. On April 16, 2018, the song was officially released worldwide.

A harp version of the song was released on June 1, 2018. An EP with remixes by Sister Bliss, B.Traits and Shura was released on June 29, 2018.

Another version of the song ("Ambient") leaked circa April 2018.

Background

Aurora wrote the characteristic vocalization in the song when she was a child. It started as a piano piece and eventually made it into this song.

"Queendom" was recorded in Bergen, Norway, likely in 2017. Aurora said about creating the song:

"It actually took quite a long time to take shape. I went back into it a lot and rewrote. [...] And that message, it changed... so it became much more comprehensive every day."

A recording of a group of female drummers on the streets in Salvador (Bahia), Brazil is part of the song. Some footage of their meeting appears in the documentary Once Aurora. The song was performed live ahead of its release, the first time being on 10/16/2017 at Teatro Sesc Casa do Comércio. A fragment or version of "Queendom" was also used as opening and closing music in that Brazil tour.

About the song

The song is about a fictional world with the same name that was created by Aurora, where all people are accepted for their differences. "It's about all the people in the 'Queendom', what they're doing and what we dream of. It's a new world, which I'm very excited to share."

In an interview with Clash she said:

"Queendom is about celebrating all the differences in us. It's about celebrating the women and the children and animals and the men also. The quiet ones and the introverts, where they can sing and be seen. It's about the shy people and the lonely people and I hope it can be a place where we can come and be lonely together and then not be lonely anymore. Queendom is a place for all of us."

In another interview, she told NME:

"The world has a lot of good and bad in it, but as I say in the first verse of 'Queendom', the underdogs are my lions, the silent ones are [my] choir – the women will be my soldiers, the weight of life on their shoulders. But it's also for men, the planets and everything. It's a very important start of my new chapter."

"I guess the biggest point of it is that it's a song for all of us. I met many of my fans last year all over the world and it really got into me. It really got under my skin how we all need this place where we can belong together because there are a lot of lost ones out there also. So I just want 'Queendom' to be this, you know, home."

When Aurora was asked in an interview with The Independent whether the song is a feminist or a queer anthem, she answered:

"Queendom is for everyone that hasn't been respected. I'm a feminist because I'm a woman, it's as easy as that. But homosexuality was an even bigger inspiration to the song than feminism. It was after I visited Brazil and some places where I realised the political status around same sex love was really bad. I just thought to myself okay, the world sucks, so I'm going to write this song and make a new world for us."

Lyrics

The underdogs are my lions
The silent ones are my choir
The women will be my soldiers
With the weight of life on their shoulders

Drink until you've had enough
I'll drink from your hands
I will be your warrior
I will be your lamb

Till queendom come
Till queendom come
My queendom come
My queendom come

The sea waves are my evening gown
And the sun on my head is my crown
I made this queendom on my own
And all the mountains are my throne

Drink until you've had enough
I'll drink from your hands
I will be your warrior
I will be your lamb

Till queendom come
Till queendom come
My queendom come
My queendom come

My queendom come
My queendom come

I hunt the grounds for empathy
And hate the way it hides from me
With care and thirst I have become
You have a home in my queendom
You have a home in my queendom
You have a place in my queendom
You have a home

Till queendom come
Till queendom come
My queendom come
My queendom come
My queendom come
My queendom come
My queendom come
My queendom come
My queendom come

Lyrics copied from booklet of Infections of a Different Kind of Human (Japanese Deluxe Edition CD).

Music video

A music video for the song was released on May 2, 2018. It was filmed in Prague and directed by Kinga Burza.

About the music video, Aurora said to i-D:

"Queendom is a bit different in mood to what I usually do. It's about serious things but done in a very light way, because you can dance to it also. It isn't about the place, it's a state of mind, so the idea was for the video to be quite delicate, soft, inviting and free. I have these dancers and I wanted us to be always touching, always together. It's very connected; we're always intertwined."

And to NME Aurora said she wanted the video to reflect a feeling a feeling of freedom and the beautiful expression of dancing.

"I just wanted it to be really beautiful, really peaceful. I wanted to have these people with me and I wanted to kiss a woman, I wanted them all to kind of touch. [In] all the choreography we are touching eachother. Because it's a way of saying that we are always connected. We are kind of one organism with many souls. Which is also one of the messages behind the song."

Audio

Decca Records & Petroleum Records regions

Glassnote regions

Harp Version

Decca Records & Glassnote regions

Petroleum Records regions

Ambient version

Trivia

• This painting by Aurora was originally going to be the artwork for the song's single:

  

• The song was featured on several of Spotify's New Music Friday playlists around the globe.
• A different version of the song appeared on the official reveal trailer of the game Unravel Two.
• The song was featured on episode 3, season 2 (2019) of Spanish thriller/teen drama series Élite.
• "Dronningerige", an interpretation of the song in Danish was registered and released in 2020 by the artist Anne-Louise.
• The music video is unavailable in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
• The Petroleum Records version of the cover is a different edit:

  

• The Petroleum Records version of the "Harp Version" cover is a different edit with more saturated colors than the Glassnote version. The Decca Records version is missing a color profile, making it look desaturated.