Mick Flannery teams up with Anaïs Mitchell for new single 'Minnesota'

Cork singer-songwriter Mick Flannery and American artist Anaïs Mitchell have joined forces to release their first official collaboration, 'Minnesota' – in aid of voting rights organisation Fair Fight.

Mick wrote the song at his home in County Clare during lockdown, in reaction to the current state of America's social and political landscape.

Anaïs, who was recently voted one of TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People, takes the lead vocal in the duet – which is focused on the complex relationship between an American woman and her country.

“Since I can remember, news of America has been talked about in Ireland," Mick says. "There is a storied connection between the two nations. In 2018 I wrote a song called ‘Rosaleen’, a song to Ireland, in which I tried to make sense of a person's relationship to the state in which they live. The song ‘Minnesota’ has a similar theme, inspired by what, in the news at least, appears to be an ever more fractured and polarised American society."

Anaïs describes Mick Flannery as one of her "very favourite writers in the world."

"I would sing any song he asked, but was especially moved to sing ‘Minnesota’," she says. "I just gave birth to my second child and I connect deeply with that watershed feeling of going from daughter to mother. Part of it is the realisation that no one else is going to fix things for us; the trouble, the mess, the responsibility is ours. America is “a growing child”. Everybody please vote!”

Listen to 'Minnesota' below: