"Let Nature Sing" is a single released by the

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...

on 26 April 2019, consisting of 2 minutes 32 seconds of British birdsong. The track was mixed by Adrian Thomas, Sam Lee and Bill Barclay, and released by the RSPB through Horus Music. The single was created to raise awareness of threats to birds and its release was timed to coincide with

International Dawn Chorus Day The dawn chorus is the outbreak of birdsong at the start of a new day. In temperate countries this is most noticeable in spring when the birds are either defending a Territory (animal), breeding territory, trying to attract a mate or calling in t ...

on 5 May 2019. It reached number 18 on the UK Singles Chart, marking the first time a recording solely of birds had entered the charts, and reached number 1 on the

UK Singles Sales Chart The UK Singles Sales Chart is a weekly record chart compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the British record industry. The UK Singles Sales Chart differs from the UK Singles Chart (also known as the Official Singles Chart) ...

Production

To raise awareness of the decline in birds over the last 50 years, the RSPB recruited the

creative agency An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...

Glimpse to create a campaign to bring nature into popular culture. Part of the campaign was for a single to be released and enter the charts for International Dawn Chorus Day on 5 May 2019. While producing the ''RSPB Guide to Birdsong'', the author Adrian Thomas recorded samples of many different British bird songs between 2016 and 2019. Thomas then mixed some of these recordings together into a demo. Thomas then recruited the help of Bill Barclay, the musical director at

the Globe Theatre The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 at Southwark, close to the south bank of the Thames, by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It was destroyed by fire on ...

, and the folk musician Sam Lee to arrange the recordings into a track. The final mix was produced by Andrew Mellor, recording engineer of the

Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription concerts, n ...

. To coincide with the release of the track, the RSPB organised a panel on "the musicality of nature" hosted by

BBC Radio 6 The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current state ...

presenter

Shaun Keaveny Shaun William Keaveny (born 14 June 1972) is a British broadcaster who presented the Breakfast Show on radio station BBC Radio 6 Music for 11 years, and the afternoon show for a further three years. Early life and education Keaveny grew up on ...

, with

Eliza Doolittle Eliza Doolittle is a fictional character and the protagonist in George Bernard Shaw's play '' Pygmalion'' (1913) and its 1956 musical adaptation, ''My Fair Lady''. Eliza (from Lisson Grove, London) is a Cockney flower seller, who comes to Prof ...

, Chrissie Rhodes of The Shires, and Sam Lee. The track was remixed by

Diplo Thomas Wesley Pentz (born November 10, 1978), known professionally as Diplo, is an American DJ and music producer. He is a co-creator and lead member of the electronic dancehall music project Major Lazer; a member of the supergroup LSD (group), ...

for the

Nick Grimshaw Nicholas Peter Andrew Grimshaw (born 14 August 1984), nicknamed "Grimmy", is an English broadcaster and author. He became known for having hosted a variety of shows on BBC Radio 1. He is also known as a television presenter for his Channel 4 rol ...

drivetime show, creating a " donk" version.

Featured birds

The song features the songs of many different species, ranging from very common garden birds such as the blackbird and robin to endangered and rare species such as cranes, of which only a few pairs are found in the UK. These include: *

Cuckoo Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae ( ) family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes ( ). The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals, and anis. The coucals and anis are somet ...

Nightingale The common nightingale, rufous nightingale or simply nightingale (''Luscinia megarhynchos''), is a small passerine bird which is best known for its powerful and beautiful song. It was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, ...

Wren Wrens are a family, Troglodytidae, of small brown passerine birds. The family includes 96 species and is divided into 19 genera. All species are restricted to the New World except for the Eurasian wren that is widely distributed in the Old Worl ...

* Blackbird *

Great spotted woodpecker The great spotted woodpecker (''Dendrocopos major'') is a medium-sized woodpecker with pied black and white plumage and a red patch on the lower belly. Males and young birds also have red markings on the neck or head. This species is found acros ...

Robin Robin most commonly refers to several species of passerine birds. Robin may also refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), inclu ...

Collared dove ''Streptopelia'' (collared doves and turtle doves) is a genus of 15 species of birds in the pigeon and dove family Columbidae native to the Old World in Africa, Europe, and Asia. These are mainly slim, small to medium-sized species. The upperpar ...

* Crane *

Curlew The curlews () are a group of nine species of birds in the genus ''Numenius'', characterised by their long, slender, downcurved bills and mottled brown plumage. The English name is imitative of the Eurasian curlew's call, but may have been infl ...

Lapwing Lapwings (subfamily Vanellinae) are any of various ground-nesting birds (Family (biology), family Charadriidae) akin to plovers and dotterels. They range from in length, and are noted for their slow, irregular wingbeats in flight and a shrill, ...

Swift Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIF ...

Bittern Bitterns are birds belonging to the subfamily Botaurinae of the heron family Ardeidae. Bitterns tend to be shorter-necked and more secretive than other members of the family. They were called ''hæferblæte'' and various iterations of ''rared ...

* Turtle dove * Chiffchaff *

Snipe A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and cryptic/ camouflaging plumage. ''Gallinago'' snipe have a nearly ...

Blackcap The Eurasian blackcap (''Sylvia atricapilla'') is a bird usually known simply as the blackcap. It is a common and widespread typical warbler. It has mainly olive-grey upperparts and pale grey underparts, and differences across the five subspec ...

Swallow The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...

Great tit The great tit (''Parus major'') is a small passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of No ...

Sedge warbler The sedge warbler (''Acrocephalus schoenobaenus'') is an Old World warbler in the genus ''Acrocephalus (bird), Acrocephalus''. It is a medium-sized warbler with a brown, streaked back and wings and a distinct pale supercilium. Sedge warblers are ...

Grasshopper warbler The common grasshopper warbler or just grasshopper warbler (''Locustella naevia'') is a species of Old World warbler in the genus ''Locustella''. It breeds across much of temperate Europe and the western Palearctic. It is migratory, wintering ac ...

Skylark ''Alauda'' is a genus of larks found across much of Europe, Asia and in the mountains of north Africa, and one of the species (the Raso lark) endemic to the islet of Raso in the Cape Verde Islands Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially ...

Song thrush The song thrush (''Turdus philomelos'') is a Thrush (bird), thrush that breeds across the West Palearctic. It has brown upper-parts and black-spotted cream or buff underparts and has four recognised subspecies. Its distinctive Birdsong, song, w ...

Nightjar Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae and order Caprimulgiformes, characterised by long wings, short legs, and very short bills. They are sometimes called bugeaters, their primary source of food ...

Tawny owl The tawny owl (''Strix aluco''), also called the brown owl, is a stocky, medium-sized owl in the family Strigidae. It is commonly found in woodlands across Europe, as well as western Siberia, and has seven recognized subspecies. The tawny owl' ...

Music video

The video, performed by Drew Colby, uses shadowgraphy or "hand shadow puppetry" to show two birds struggling to find food for their chicks. Colby used hand shadows to produce the images of birds, spiders and landscapes, which were there composited together digitally. Text at the end of the video explains that since 1966, the UK has lost over 40 million birds and that "time is running out to save the rest". The RSPB also created a subtitled video, highlighting the name of each bird as it sings.

Reception

Andy Welch, writing for ''The Guardian'', called "Let Nature Sing" "strangely comforting and a welcome sound for anyone who has ever enjoyed a dawn chorus". Joe Shute in the ''Daily Telegraph'' described its appearance during '' The Official Chart Show'' as "rather magical".

Chart performance

"Let Nature Sing" debuted at number 11 in the mid-week chart, and reached number 3 in the Official Trending Chart, with a final position of 18 in the full weekly chart. The single was the best-selling of the week, with 23,500 units sold.

Weekly charts

References

External links

Let Nature Sing campaign page

"Let Nature Sing"
on YouTube {{authority control Bird sounds Songs about birds Environmental songs Music videos featuring puppetry Royal Society for the Protection of Birds 2019 singles Visual arts by animals 2019 songs