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 Þórdís & Guðmundur with their song “All Over The World”. Do we want people all over the world to get behind this song, or should we suspend their passports? Read on to find out…
Þórdís & Guðmundur – “ALL OVER THE WORLD”
“ALL OVER THE WORLD” REVIEWS
Robyn: I was settling down, expecting this to be another polite, folky song, but then – bam! – there comes the rap. Guðmundur’s rap complements Þórdís’ singing surprisingly well, and by the end of the song some of his swagger seems to have rubbed of on her. She’s not there to just sing the chorus, he’s not there to just add a guest verse. It’s a solid partnership and it works really well.
Score: 7.5/10
William: It’s true that the opening bars are sleepy and a bit dull. But do we really need an Icelandic rapper to wake us up? Hell to the NO! Rap is bad enough in English, but the reality is that English is the linga franca of rap. Straight Outta Reykjavik just doesn’t work for me.
Score: 2.5/10
Steinunn: I’m digging this. Is it a hard-core hip-hop song? No. But it has just the right amount of rap and just the right amount of pop elements to meet the Eurovision criteria. It all depends on the performance. If they nail that factor, I believe this is going to go far in Söngvakeppnin 2016.
Score: 7.5/10
Josh: When I first started listening to “All Over The World”, I was preparing myself for yet another folk song. I did not expect it to build into an R&B/rap song, and the surprise was actually good for once! This entry is so incredibly different for Iceland and I really like it. Þórdís has a really sweet voice that suits the femininity of the sung component whereas Guðmundur’s rap complements the song very nicely. This is a great effort!
Score: 7/10
In the Icelandic jury we have seventeen jurors but only room for four reviews. The remaining thirteen scores are below!
Antranig: 8.5/10
Bernardo: 5.5/10
Cristian: 5/10
Dayana: 7.5/10
Denise: 6/10
Edd: 7/10
Gökhan: 7/10
Luis: 7/10
Maria: 5.5/10
Mario: 4/10
Max: 3/10
Mikhail: 7/10
Sinan: 8/10
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 2.5 and a high of 8.5.
Why is everyone so surprised that Icelanders can rap? That only shows how ignorant some people are regarding Icelandic popular music. R&B and rap are very popular in Iceland – in fact, Friðrik Dór himself is an R&B artist, and a big part of his songs include guest rap. Now I understand why so many people weren’t giving him a chance last year, because of a very poor knowledge of the music scene in Iceland. Now, this is the song for which I’m rooting the most this year in Iceland! It’s solid, it’s catchy, it’s modern – three important elements… Read more »
Icelandic people can rap? And make it sound good? Damn, colour me surprised, this is actually a solid song, the elements all jell well, her singing the pre-chorus, to the chorus itself, to his rap (I refuse to spell names on the basis of butchering the beautiful Icelandic language). I never knew Icelandic could sound so beautiful and so cool! Only issues are that the song kind of goes Harlem shake at the end of the chorus, and the “Oh oh, oooh oh oh ohhs” towards the end need to be featured more! I love it! This could very much… Read more »
My jaw dropped after the first listen! The rap really caught me off guard especially since it was the last I listened to. This could be one to watch!