Iceland chose their representative to the Eurovision Song contest back on February 2nd, in the fabulously named Söngvakeppnin 2013.  |
| Nordic graphic design. Awesome. |
Like many countries, RÚV, the Icelandic national broadcaster, decided to cut back on their national finals, with only two semifinals leading to the national final, which is quite understandable.
For most Eurovision watchers, the biggest surprise was the failure of Yohanna, the singer of one of the most successful Icelandic Eurovision entries, making it out of the first semifinal.
Yohanna "Þú"
And although I'm surprised to say this, I have to agree. Although I have a soft spot for former contestants trying again, this song wasn't good. It's a lousy song, and to use a cliche "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear".
The Winner
Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson "Ég á Líf"
I have to say I like this song, although the look of the singer and the song don't match. Gunnlaugsson looks like he's out of a heavy metal band, but his song is a simple ballad that pulls from Celtic folk and church music.
It's very reminiscent of this song, entered in Söngvakeppnin 2012, which happened to be my favorite in last years Icelandic Eurovision selection process.
Íris Lind Verudóttir "Aldrei segja aldrei"
As for it's success in Malmö, I can't really say one way or the other, and right now it is really all down to Gunnlaugsson's appearance.
Right now his look is very odd--the long hair and the beard matched with the shiny suit don't feel modern at all and made me do a double take when I saw it was the winner of this year's contest. It immediately made me think of songs like this:
Scott Fitzgerald "Go" United Kingdom 1988
I'm all for the throwback song, but to be immediately reminded of the late 1980s isn't necessarily a good thing in my book.
But it's going to be down to the staging, and Iceland has been successful in prior years at Eurovision, so this song may very well have a chance to make it to the top of the table come the night of the finals... We'll see.
Should Have Won
This one is hard, because really, any of the songs could have been contenders, but I'm going to go with this number as my choice as the song that should have won:
Jógvan Hansen & Stefanía Svavarsdóttir "Til þín"
I have no real reason other that Hansen had the more stage presence than anybody else in the final. I get why it didn't win, Iceland sent a male/female duo last year, but it would have been just as worthy as "Ég á Líf".
My Favorites
As I mentioned before, I liked a lot of the songs, and I could probably feature all of them, but I'm going to put up one for a note I learned back in my days in choirs:
Magni Ásgeirsson "Ekki Líta Undan"
The lesson is no matter how sucked up into performing the song, you always need to watch what your hands are doing. In Ásgeirsson's case, it looked like he was milking a cow or doing something a little less appropriate for me to type. And that greatly distracted me from his performance--no matter how much I liked the song.
But as for my personal favorite, I have to go with this number:
Haraldur Reynisson "Vinátta"
I do like a mellow song, and the "MTV Unplugged" staging was surprisingly appealing to me. Does this mean I'll start complaining about the music that the young kids are listening to soon? More than likely. Then I'll be yelling at them to stay off my lawn. Yep, it's the next natural step. Pretty soon it's going to be Metamucil and orthopedic shoes...
Seriously, though, I could put two more songs in this section without any trouble. Iceland had a very strong final this year, and I highly recommend you go searching out all of the songs youself and take a listen. It's worth the 30 minutes to listen to all of them.
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