ICELAND

The Icelandic Final was held on March 2nd at Laugardalshöll in Reykjavik, hosted by Fannar Sveinsson & Benedikt Valsson. Before the final there were 2 semi-finals where 2 songs qualified from each by right plus a wildcard. The winner waschosen in two rounds of voting - in the first round the top 2 were chosen by a mixture of televoting and a jury but in the second round the overall winner was chosen solely by televoting. The winning act was Hatari with “Hatrið mun sigra” (Hate will prevail)

The three members of the band are joined on stage by two female singer/dancers and one male dancer. One member of the band is stood on a small plinth whilst he bangs out the beat of the song on the boxes next to him whist the other two alternately sing parts of the songs in their very differing musical styles. The whole troupe is dressed in its signature bondage style whilst the back drop is mainly flashing red. Most of the dancing and action is very gestural with walking, pointing, fist-making and back bending motifs.

The song is a very raw industrial tinged electronic dance song. There is a very hard beat to the song which is further emphasised but the pendulum-esque drumming on stage. The verses are sung with a highly compressed effect on it to make it sound like it’s coming out of a megaphone. It also makes the voice come across as shouty and angry. The chorus is sung much more gently and as a kind of tune to it, however the hard backing track de not let up and you end up with a very odd juxtaposition of sounds. By the end of the song there is a false finish twinned with an even more unexpected key change which eventually brings both singers together at the same times which culminates in its finish. Although the whole song is sung in Icelandic, the emotion and passion of the song comes flooding through the screen.

Needless to say there has never been anything quite like this at Eurovision so working out how this will do is a real 'finger in the air and see which way the wind is blowing’ kind of moment. It is certainly a song and act that gives you a bit of a jolt and demands to be watched, whether that be with shock, awe or disgust. One also does have to wonder if they might be asked to tone the visuals down, especially for some of the afternoon shows or this might be another performance blurred out in some media strands. On the other hand their outrageous personas and their apparent political stance will get a lot of press for them and the whole contest.

Will this qualify? Who knows! What I will say is that although some western countries may well appreciate the dynamics of the performance and vote for something a it subversive, part of me thinks this might be a little be too much for more traditional countries but more so for some of the jury members. People working as vocal coaches, orchestral musicians or members over 60 might not see the funny side of this at all. Good for them for trying something new!

ARTIST –  Hatari

SONG –  Hatrið mun sigra (Hate will prevail)

MUSIC -  Einar Hrafn Stefánsson, Klemens Nikulásson Hannigan, Matthías Tryggvi Haraldsson

LYRICS - Einar Hrafn Stefánsson, Klemens Nikulásson Hannigan, Matthías Tryggvi Haraldsson