Watch Florence and the Machine Perform ‘Jenny of Oldstones’ Live
Florence and the Machines played their Game of Thrones-inspired track “Jenny of Oldstones” live for the first time at Arizona’s FORM Arcosanti festival. The song was released last month alongside the second episode of the HBO series’ final season and is the only new original track for season eight.
Frontwoman Florence Welch brought out collaborator Kelsey Lu to guest during the performance and offered the number to a fan favorite character. “I would like to dedicate this song to Arya Stark, who saved us all,” Welch told the audience.
Welch was approached by the Game of Thrones show runners directly, although D.B. Weiss and Dan Benioff didn’t give her any specific direction on creating the song. “What I wanted to do with this song was keep it as sparse as possible,” she said of the track. “It does get a bit more rousing at the end, but I really wanted to retain the simplicity of the melody and the lyrics that they sent me, because I found them so moving. If I had known the history of the song, I would have been like, “[Expletive], we need fanfares, and you’re going to have to get a dragon on here somehow.” I might have — as I can do sometimes — overblown it. So I’m glad I didn’t know then, but I’m glad to know now. You want the beauty and the fragility in there as well. I would have made it too big, if I had known just how [expletive] big it is!”
Florence and the Machine’s most recent album, High As Hope, dropped last year. The band has since released two one-off singles, “Haunted House” and “Moderation.” They are currently on tour.