He’s a friend of humanity, a two-sword-wielding mutant, and also happens to be Henry Cavill. Netflix’s blockbuster fantasy The Witcher was huge for the streaming platform, debuting in December 2019 to 76 million sets of eyeballs per Netflix’s reckoning. The show, based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s book series of the same name, came with high production values, massive action set pieces and one important element that held its mythos together: a inescapably catchy song in “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher.”
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Composed by Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli and sung by actor Joey Batey (playing the bard character Jaskier), “Toss a Coin” was a bona-fide viral hit almost immediately as Witcher fans clamored for the track to be released on a streaming platform. (Unofficial streams are available on YouTube.) Now, after the support and ceaseless remixing, Netflix and The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich have finally announced that a single release of the theme song is available to stream on Spotify, ahead of the The Witcher Soundtrack Vol. 1, which drops later this week on January 24.
Ask and ye shall receive, #TheWitcher fans! ❤️⚔️🐺🎶 https://t.co/JkBLXBG86d
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) January 22, 2020
The song itself plays a major role in the show as Jaskier meets and comes to know and accompany the eponymous protagonist Geralt of Rivia. Its lyrics detail Geralt’s prowess in combat and how he saved Jaskier’s life. Most importantly, it serves as an easy bit of exposition: “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” and he’ll take out the monsters and demons and djinns that are raising hell in your village.
It doesn’t hurt that it’ll never get out of your head once you hear it: “It’s the most annoying thing I’ve ever heard,” Batey told Men’s Health after the show debuted. “It’s so catchy.”
“Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” follows the musical tradition of The Witcher series’ fantasy forebears like The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. Those film and TV franchises all featured bard characters who narrated the epic events of their respective series through song, and Sapkowski’s Witcher saga is no different. In the critically acclaimed video games also based on the books, the player often comes across singing troupes and bards like Jaskier (who goes by Dandelion in the games).
“Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” is now available to stream on Spotify.
