Earlier today, the Wiwi Jury – our in-house panel of music unprofessionals – gathered in Reykjavik to discuss the contestants participating in Söngvakeppnin 2016, the national selection for Iceland at Eurovision 2016. Today we look at Pálmi Gunn with his song “I Lead You Home”. Are we happy for Pálmi to lead us home, or should we call the police because we have an old, Icelandic man stalking us? Read on to find out…
PÁLMI GUNN – “I LEAD YOU HOME”
“I LEAD YOU HOME” REVIEWS
Josh: All of the delegations for Eurovision around the world need to understand that rehashing a former star almost never pays off. I’m sure Pálmi is a lovely man and good on him for giving Eurovision another crack, but I think that the grandfather of Iceland’s Eurovision alumni should maybe take a little nap – and I know a decent song to help him sleep. It’s called “I Lead You Home”.
Score: 2.5/10
Luis: I hate to say this about a song, but I was falling asleep while hearing it. “I Lead You Home” is obviously dated, yet well constructed and well sung. Pálmi’s voice is charming, but the whole act sounds as if it was taken from a Sunday afternoon show for old people. And in a way it’s sad that while his mate at ICY, Eiríkur Hauksson, brought an absolute masterpiece to ESC in 2007 (still crying about that not qualifying), Pálmi can only give us a bland ballad with no risk at all.
Score: 3/10
Robyn: Iceland is doing the Melfest trick of bring back a star from earlier years, with Pálmi part of Iceland’s debut act, ICY in 1986. The disco sailor’s jacket is gone and instead Pálmi is delivering a very gentle, comforting ballad. I don’t think it’s going to win – and I don’t think it would do well at Stockholm – but it’s lovely to have this as part of the national final.
Score: 6.5/10
William: He does not lead me home. He leads me to an elevator shaft blaring 1980s easy listening. That he represented Iceland at Eurovision 30 years ago isn’t surprising — he’s hung on to the sound. His voice is lovely. I just wish he would apply it to something a bit more 2016. Halfway through the song I actually press stopped and listened to Glenn Medeiros’ “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You”.
Score: 3/10
In the Icelandic jury we have seventeen jurors but only room for four reviews. The remaining thirteen scores are below!
Antranig: 2/10
Bernardo: 5/10
Cristian: 4/10
Dayana: 4/10
Denise: 3/10
Edd: 1.5/10
Gökhan: 5/10
Maria: 2.5/10
Mario: 3.5/10
Max: 3/10
Mikhail: 4/10
Sinan: 8/10
Steinunn: 4/10
The highest and lowest scores are dropped prior to calculating the average score. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 1.5 and a high of 8.
Love this song. It’s timeless, and -unlike most other songs- it isn’t trying to cling to whatever pop-fad-sound feels relevant this year. 8.5/10
I still feel like this song belongs over the ending credits of a Disney animated movie from the 90’s. And I don’t mean that in a bad way.
The song sounds fine, but would end up forgotten in a contest like Eurovision.
Granddad, is that you?! What are you doing in Icela-oh, wait. Okay, so this song sounds dated, i’m talking like Henry VIII has this on his mixtape back “in the day”. And it doesn’t really go anywhere. I’m all for a soft ballad to awkwardly sway to, but this is just…
…sorry, I fell asleep.
Score: 1.5/10
These juries can rot in hell. They couldn’t distinguish quality even if it danced naked in front of them. This song is a masterpiece, with very strong reminscences of classic pop all over it.
I’m sure these idiots will enjoy Gréta Salóme, even when both of her songs this year are pure crap.
This style of balads can be verry good, but this one is to boring for the eurovision song contest.