ICELAND

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