The Icelandic Final was held
on March 11th at Laugardalshöll in Reykjavik, hosted by Ragnhildur Steinunn
Jónsdóttir. Before the final there were 2 semi-finals and all the songs at this
point had to be performed in Icelandic. The winner was chosen in 2 rounds of
voting - in the first round the top 2 were chosen by an international
"expert" jury (50%) & televoting (50%) but in the second round
the winner was chosen solely by televoting. The winner was Svala with her
self-penned song “Paper”
Svala is alone on stage wearing
an 80s style pants suit and jacket with a short top underneath. There are laser effects and plumes of smoke
on stage throughout the song. At first she is very dimly lit whilst white light beams flash around her in
time with the music. The background is mainly flashing blocks of turquoise. During the second verse, beams of pink light join the show. The staging of
this is highly choreographed with every little step and arm movement thought
through beforehand. I also notice that a lot of the camera work focuses on Svala’s
whole body and very little on her face which is a very odd artistic decision.
The song is an electropop ballad
although some of the parts of the song are phrased faster than others. The
start of the song has very minimal backing which shows off Svala’s tone of
voice and great diction. The chorus is cleverly written with a good 6 beats of the
8 given just to the word ‘paper’ although the other rhymes in the chorus are a
little predictable. The second chorus is more interesting as the cadence and
flow is much quicker, more staccato which makes the rhymes and writing much
clever and more interesting to listen to. The ‘ah-ah-ah’ part after the second
chorus is very ill placed and stalls the flow of the song and makes you think the song is nearly over when it is not. It makes the last
version of the chorus feel like it’s plodding.
Although I quite like her
style and staging of this, I find quite clinical. There is a lack of
spontaneity and true feeling in her performance that leaves me very cold. I
almost wish that for a chorus or two she just connected with the audience in
the hall or straight down the camera lens and told the story. I particularly
hate the part in the chorus where she dances with her hands on her hips! The
other issue is that the song is quite bland and doesn’t really go anywhere.
There is fair prominence to the word ‘paper’ which gets in your head but the
rest is quite forgettable. I can easily imagine this
being placed between more up-tempo numbers which would kill this song’s chances
stone dead. In fact the only way I can see this qualifying is if it is performed last and the chances of that happening are minimal.
ARTIST - Svala
SONG - Paper
MUSIC - Svala
Björgvinsdóttir, Einar Egilsson, Lester Mendez, Lily Elise
LYRICS - Svala
Björgvinsdóttir, Einar Egilsson, Lester Mendez, Lily Elise
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