Daoi Freyr Petursson
Daoi Freyr Petursson

Earlier today, the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — spent three hours wandering around the National Museum of Iceland in Reykjavik. While we learned about the history of Iceland — volcanic eruptions, Viking explorers and Björk, oh my! — we decided to review “Is This Love?”, Daði Freyr Pétursson’s entry for Söngvakeppnin 2017. Is it love? Read on to find out…

Daði Freyr Pétursson – “Is This Love?”

About Daði Freyr Pétursson

Daði Freyr Pétursson is relatively unknown in Iceland, and is a newcomer to Söngvakeppnin. His entry “Is This Love?” is a self-penned synthpop number.

“Is This Love?” reviews

Robyn: This just isn’t working. Daði has light folky vocals, an odd mix with the intense house beats of the song. The song is very repetitive and soon becomes boring to listen to. But most importantly, the singer doesn’t sound at all thrilled that he might actually be falling in love.

Score: 3/10

Jason: “Is This Love?” is really quite odd, but I like how different this is to anything else in the selection. The techno beats shouldn’t work with Daði’s vocals, but for me the combination is strangely appealing. However, I am not sure how this will come across live, and with some other very strong entries, I have a feeling we won’t be seeing Daði in Kyiv.

Score: 6/10

Chris: Opening your song with “this is awkward” is never a great sign, right? This is like an awkward teen nerd love letter put to a bad house beat. At least in the Icelandic version, the lyrics don’t confuse me. Yet Daði’s vocal remains off-kilter to the rest of the song. It’s just weak.

Score: 1/10

William: It’s not love, and the feeling he’s trying to describe is called boredom. I love his ambition to serve some funky Nordic electro lounge realness. But unfortunately this grows tired very fast and at various points it’s like he’s slipped into 70s discotheque. It’s great that he’s avoided the Icelandic trap of being a woman screaming or a folk singer strumming. But this is bland in its own way.

Score: 2/10

Bernardo: My mother always told me: if you have nothing good to say about something, just shut up and smile. I’m straining to smile now. There is zero fit between the singer and the song, and the instrumental is quite annoying. The worst in this semi-final. What a mess.

Score: 0.5/10

Patrick: There is something really annoying about Daði’s voice that makes me not like this song whatsoever. It sounds like very old fashioned electro pop, and would likely do miserably at Eurovision. The lyrics come off as rather cheap, but I guess they fit the song. He asks if this is love….certainly not from me. Next!

Score: 1.5/10

Antranig: While some of the electronic beats of “Is This Love?” are quite infectious, they drown out the vocals. This is not a match between singer and song — the song overpowers him and his vocals sound like a last minute addition. I don’t think Daði’s vocals are bad but the song doesn’t allow them to shine. Unfortunately, the problem exists in both languages.

Score: 1/10

Luis: Daði speaks about an awkward first encounter with his lover, and he actually manages to physically transmit his awkwardness through his song. I mean, it was his purpose I guess, but who on Earth wants to transmit awkwardness? An awkward person I suppose. Anyway, his self-reflection is going nowhere, just like this song.

Score: 0/10

In our Söngvakeppnin 2017 Wiwi Jury, we have 20 jurors but only room for 8 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

Dayana: 3.5/10

Deban: 4/10

Florian: 1.5/10

Forrest: 4.5/10

Jordi: 6.5/10

Josh: 1/10

Kristin: 5/10

Matt: 8.5/10

Mikhail: 3.5/10

Sami: 2/10

Sinan: 2.5/10

Steinunn: 8/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 0 and a high of 8.5.

Wiwi Jury Verdict: 3.17/10

SEE THE FULL LIST OF SÖNGVAKEPPNIN 2017 RANKINGS HERE

READ MORE ICELAND EUROVISION NEWS

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Zebb
Zebb
6 years ago

Yeah, I missed the opportunity to watch this harshy rank. Absolutely charming in final and I dug it to my playlist.

George M
George M
7 years ago

If this had won in Iceland, it would’ve been second behind Italy as my favourite based purely on how often I feel the need to listen to it! Everything from the song itself to how the singers come across on stage (fantastically awkward) to the pixel background, feels like it was tailor made for me.

ian from the philippines

this came second in the national selection.

egg on the faces for the wiwi jury for placing this so low

AngieP
AngieP
7 years ago

This isn’t working at all! Honestly, this song is one the few songs in any selection I can’t bear hearing. And the music at times is so annoying.

Amor Amankwah
Amor Amankwah
7 years ago

I actually love this. Its one of my favorites and stood out a lot for me.

Ddraven
Ddraven
7 years ago

The only positive thing I have to say is that he looks like Spencer Reid from Criminal minds..

Jacky
Jacky
7 years ago

I like it, but I can see why it might not be to everyone’s taste. It’s very mid 00’s shoegazing/electro indie. It’ll probably be awkward on stage and doesn’t deserve to win Songvakeppnin, but it makes me smile.

mocosuburbian
mocosuburbian
7 years ago

I really love the Icelandic version, hate the English idk why
@Polegend get a thesaurus girl how many songs have you described as ‘graveside-singer’ like what does that even mean

Colin
Colin
7 years ago

This is probably the weakest Songvakeppnin song, but come on, it’s still very decent. Speaking of awkward love declarations, he is less boring and repetitive than The Ludvig.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
7 years ago

Omg, those scores. I think what is love to him, is pain to our ears. I don’t like his vocals, they’re very graveside singer-ish.

Robert
Robert
7 years ago

LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

(J)ESC Fanatic
(J)ESC Fanatic
7 years ago

Honey, this is anything but love! Absolutely abysmal song and voice. This is probably my least favorite entry from all national selections so far and I think it will stay that way.