Laibach cover Billie Holiday protest song 'Strange Fruit'

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Laibach have announced details of “Strange Fruit”, a three-track single release that follows their recent single “The Future” (originally by Leonard Cohen). This interpretation of the Billie Holiday protest song has featured in their ongoing Opus Dei tour (which continues into 2025), and precedes the band’s “Opus Dei Revisited” double album (out 13 December on Mute).

“Strange Fruit” tracklisting

Strange Fruit (03:06)
Strange Fruit (Alternate version) (03:00)
Strange Fruit (Live from Lublin, May 28th 2024) (03:19)

Watch the video for Laibach’s “Strange Fruit” below.

Billie Holiday originally recorded her version of “Strange Fruit” on 20 April 1939. The track, originally written by a Jewish school teacher Abel Meeropol (using the pseudonym Lewis Allen), was in response to lynching in US southern states. A year later, Meeropol, a socialist, was called to testify before a committee investigating communism and asked whether the US Communist Party had paid him to write “Strange Fruit”. Later, in 1999, it was named the song of the century by Time magazine.

Laibach go on to explain: “There’s something that’s still very radioactive about the song; it’s still relevant because race is still relevant. The impulses that Meeropol was talking about are very much still with us, on the front pages of our newspapers and across our social media every day. For us, ‘Strange Fruit’ evokes racial injustice, representing not just lynchings, but racism generally.” They expand, “Racism is a virus that mutates, taking on different forms as it adapts to a changing environment. Its mutation is made harder to observe by it being deeply embedded, not only in our traditions and institutions, but also in our unconscious lives.”

“Strange Fruit” follows May’s remastered edition of Laibach’s “Opus Dei”. Their 12-month salute to their 1987 album continues in December with the release of “Opus Dei Revisited”, which features two new interpretations of the album – one by Laibach, and the other by original producer Rico Conning.

Laibach “Opus Dei Revisited” Tour – 2025

7 Feb – Ljubljana, Kino Šiška, SI
16 Feb – Krakow Kwadrat, PL
18 Feb- Ostrava, Barrak, CZ
19 Feb – Vienna, Arena, AT
20 Feb – Jena, F-Haus, DE
21 Feb – Sittard, Poppodium Volt, NL
22 Feb – London, Islington Assembly Hall, UK
23 Feb – Manchester, Ritz, UK
24 Feb – Southampton, The 1865, UK
25 Feb – Bristol, Trinity Centre, UK
27 Feb – Lausanne, Les Docks, CH
28 Feb – Bologna, Link, IT
1 March – Nova Gorica, SNG Nova Gorica, SI
4 March – Skopje, Macedonian Philharmonic MK
5 March – Athens, Gazarte, GR
6 March – Sofia, Pirotska 5, BG
7 March – Bucharest, Quantic Club, RO
8 March – Beograd, Dom Omladine, RS
21 March – Maribor, Narodni dom, SI

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Bernard Van Isacker is the Chief Editor of Side-Line Magazine. With a career spanning more than two decades, Van Isacker has established himself as a respected figure in the darkwave scene.

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