The outcome of the Icelandic national final Saturday night was the most anticipated prospect of them all. No surprises in sight as Greta Salomé and Jónsi shot to the top, the former of the two also being the composer and lyricist of the winning entry.
It is an impeccably packaged and performed, slightly pompous, ballad with some ethnic undertones in the arrangement. There is the ever-so-popular violin à la Rybak matched with two strong vocalists. How could this go wrong?
Well, with a little bit of bad luck, this could get drawn into a block of ballads and maybe come across as less inspired than it really is. Also, Jónsi's nerves also got the better of him back in 2004, delivering flawlessly during rehearsals only to give his weakest performance of all week during the live show.
But it does look very promising for Iceland, at least for a fifth consecutive qualification.
Specifically, it looks a while lot better than it would had that horrid boy band disaster of an entry that ended in second place been selected instead.
Greta Salomé & Jónsi - Mundu eftir mér (Iceland 2012)
I doubt that RUV dares to represent this song in its original language in Baku. I can see how this song turns into an uninteresting ballad if (and when) the language is changed to English. So many interesting Icelandic songs have been lost among the other songs when the languge has been changed.
ReplyDeleteSo dear RUV, show some courage and keep this song in its original form.