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Norway farming song is surprise YouTube hit

The Local Norway
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Norway farming song is surprise YouTube hit
A screen grab of the girls gyrating in their farming gear. Photo: YouTube

A protest song about farming in Norway has become a surprise hit on YouTube, although its success may hang more on the spectacle of young women prancing about in green overalls than from its political message.

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“Norge trenger bonden” or “Norway needs the farmer” had been viewed 171,000 times by midday on Friday. 
 
The video shows members of Pikekoret IVAR, a female choir based at Norway’s top agricultural university, driving tractors, feed cows and raking, as they rap along the lyrics to hip-hop beat.  
 
"Several generations have looked after the farm, but government reforms destroy the norms,” the girls sing in one sequence. “Could we have a new government in this country please?"
 
The video then shows a woman wearing a Progress Party lapel badge, who is clearly supposed to represent Sylvi Listhaug, the Minister of Agriculture who is attempting to reduce Norwegian farmers’ reliance on subsidies. 
 
At her appearance, the girls drop their tools and chase her across a field. 
 
"Long live the farmer!” the sing. “Listhaug you can just give up." 
 
Listhaug, who in 2010 compared Norwegian agricultural policy to “a communist system”, is trying to make it easier to buy and sell agricultural land, aiming to push the country towards bigger, more efficient farms. 
 
Gina Marie Ovale, a student at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, who helped write the song, said that this was what the song aimed to prevent. 
 
"We don't want big farms. It's not good for the animals or the environment," she told the BBC, who picked up the video on their BBC Trending page.  "The idea of the song is to give a boost to farmers."
 
 

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