Lykke Li has kept relatively quiet since her 2018 album So Sad So Sexy and her August 2019 Yola Dia festival. She resurfaced yesterday, though, to offer a new spin on a classic: Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” Li took the energetic disco track and turned it into a more haunting piano affair, just vocals and piano drenched in spooky reverb.
Li shared a message alongside the song’s release, writing on Instagram:
“i wasn’t going to put this one out but then so many of you asked for it after seeing it… this is something i made for another thing in the heatwave, quarantine, alone at the piano at night with the crickets singing. believe it or not i actually don’t know anything about technology so this was the first time i ever opened garage-band, it’s even the first i ever fully accompany myself on the piano, i can’t really play piano, i usually just write on it but if there’s something this quarantine has done is to bring me back to where i started. singing, playing, for joy, for therapy, for survival. my songs, other songs i love. i know so many people are suffering right now and there’s been so much loss. loss of life, loss of family, loss of love, loss of work, loss of hope, loss of dreams, loss of air! i feel you all and i feel for you all. and i really hope we can all survive this together. love, lykke.”
Listen to Li cover “I Will Survive” above.