The atmospheric song, ‘Blackstar’ was unveiled in a minute long snippet over the opening credits of The Last Panthers. The clip features Bowie chanting in priest-like fashion over an swirling choir chorus while quasi-religious symbolism and gangland imagery plays in the background. All the while Bowie preaches “On the day of execution / Only women kneel and smile”, before a beat kicks in and takes the credits to their close. You can watch the clip below:

The show follows jewel thieves operating in Europe, referred to by Interpol as the Pink Panthers, and if the opening credits and music are anything to go by then the show promises to be a particularly dark and brooding take on the real life Pink Panthers. On Bowie’s Facebook page the show’s director discussed how Bowie drew influence from the show’s themes to craft the new track:

“I showed Mr. Bowie the two first episodes in the rough state they were at the time, and he liked what he saw very much. We discussed the various aspects of the show; naturally the plot line, but also the underlying currents of guilt and personality flaws. We talked about the dark heart of Europe. We talked about the biblical aspects of human nature. He asked if there was anything else to see, so I showed him the first concept board I had just made for the title sequence – images from the show laced with chimaeras and demons from the worlds of Bosch and Grunewald. That’s when he said go – it all fits. Then he played me his new song ‘Blackstar’.”

This marks the first time Bowie has worked on a TV theme since he wrote the music for the BBC’s adaptation of Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia, 20 years ago. Though just recently it was reported that Bowie was working on music for the new Spongebob musical.

Incidentally the production of this song is the first TV theme song that David Bowie has done in over 20 years. His last song for a TV series being the theme for the BBC’s ‘The Buddha of Suburbia’ in 1993. David’s song for ‘The Buddha of Suburbia’ wasn’t simply a theme song either, it was an entire soundtrack, being 55 minutes in length in total. Interestingly enough David once regarded that soundtrack as his favourite album that he had produced.

This is also David’s first release since his surprise ‘comeback’ album in 2013 ‘The Next Day’. David took to social media to announce his new song, posting on both Twitter:

NEW BOWIE MUSIC FOR THE LAST PANTHERS “Panthers are steaming, stalking, screaming…” David Bowie writes title… http://t.co/66Nnped2XO

— David Bowie Official (@DavidBowieReal) September 22, 2015

and Instagram:

David Bowie writes title track for The Last Panthers. See DavidBowie.com for more. #LastPanthers #NewBowieSong

A photo posted by David Bowie (@davidbowie) on Sep 22, 2015 at 4:04am PDT

Johan Renck (director of ‘The Last Panthers’) was delighted to have managed to get David to write the song for the TV series:

“I was looking for one of the icons of my youth to write the music for the title sequence, but was presented with a god. His first response was precise, engaged and curious. The piece of music he laid before us embodied every aspect of our characters and the series itself – dark, brooding, beautiful and sentimental (in the best possible incarnation of this word). All along, the man inspired and intrigued me and as the process passed, I was overwhelmed with his generosity. I still can’t fathom what actually happened.”

‘The Last Panthers’ is an upcoming six-part TV series about gangsters, bank robberies and diamond heists, set in the apparent ‘dark heart’ of Europe. Starring names such as John Hurt, Samantha Morton, Goran Bogdan and Tahar Rahim.

A trailer for ‘The Last Panthers’ can be viewed here:

Regardless of the fact that David Bowie’s new song is a TV theme song, it is exciting and something to truly look forward to. Any chance to listen to new material from the esteemed David Bowie is something to relish and this is certainly no different. That being said, the TV series similarly looks enticing and when featuring the great John Hurt, great things are expected.