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 Greta Salóme with her song “The Voices”. Can we never forget her performance in Baku, or are the voices telling us to forget? Read on to find out…
GRETA SALÓME – “THE VOICES”
“THE VOICES” REVIEWS
Antranig: 2016 is shaping up as the year of returning artists and there are very few people I’d like to see come back more than Greta Salóme. “The Voices” has a haunting effect through the verses before hammering home a catchy chorus. All of the different instruments that come in work very well together, especially those drums. Get her back to Eurovision immediately!
Score: 10/10
Robyn: “Never Forget” was one of my favourite songs from 2012, but I’m just not feeling this. It seems heavily inspired by the folky Americana sound of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero’s “Home”, a song that helped define the folk-pop sound of first half of this decade. But now that sound is feeling tired. “The Voices” is a totally adequate song performed by a great musical artist, but it’s just so bland.
Score: 6.5/10
Josh: Naturally, everyone is going to compare this to “Never Forget” in 2012, and unfortunately “The Voices” misses the mark for me completely. We’ve seen Greta Salóme deliver power, and this song feels like a blackout. The folky sounds are too common in Söngvakeppnin 2016 and I’d expect something different and with more wow-factor from Greta. Disappointing!
Score: 6/10
William: I don’t know what glacier she was born on, but it is clearly a magical place. How else can you explain the inspired sounds of this delightful folk ditty? Despite its strong roots in Icelandic tradition, this song taps into something primal and universal — yet swells with modern instrumentation and production. Polish housewives, Carpathian mountain men, Swedish dancing queens — I challenge anyone to ignore The Voices. My #1 for Iceland.
Score: 9.5/10
In the Icelandic jury we have seventeen jurors but only room for four reviews. The remaining thirteen scores are below!
Bernardo: 9/10
Cristian: 6/10
Dayana: 10/10
Denise: 9/10
Edd: 9.5/10
Gökhan: 7.5/10
Luis: 7/10
Maria: 6/10
Mario: 6/10
Max: 9/10
Mikhail: 10/10
Sinan: 10/10
Steinunn: 7.5/10
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 6 and a high of 10.
Obviously gets high ratings because it’s a past singer.
Bleh, this is mediocre. You only like it because it’s from Greta.
I’m ready to ignore it if it wins Söngvakeppnin.
This will walk through the competition in Iceland but that says more about the Iceland selection this year rather than how good this song is.
It is pretty good but I would expect her to perform it in English. She should not but she will.
Sorry, I think people only like this song because of Greta, I think if someone else sang it then people wouldn’t like it so much
This is my fave for Iceland and if it gets chosen I’d be extremely happy. I’ve actually been singing in Icelandic becasuse of this song! I said earlier that Karlotta is the safest choice but Greta is the best choice and it could bomb in Stockholm (a la Maria Olafs) but I would love to see this in Stockholm. This yr is shaping up to be the return of artists from Baku (Donny, Kalliopi, Greta
I like it more than Never Forget, but this song hits far too many Eurovision buttons to be considered a serious contender. Everything sounds quite pleasant but not intriguing nor surprising. There is a lack of originality here that bothers me.
I really love this song, if it gets chosen I don’t think it’ll leave my top 10
Greta Salome is back with a song that to me is far better than “Never Forget”, which I already really liked. If selected this can’t miss a spot in my top 5 of all the year. Really catchy music and Icelandic gives it a mysterious tone. Please keep it in Icelandic! 10/10
If Greta wins the Icelandic NFs, she’s getting an automatic place on my Top 3. “The Voices” is just so good!
This is quite good. It sounds like a less exuberant version of the solo album by Jónsi (not the one she sang a duet with, but the one from Sigur Rós).
This is perfection. Without a doubt in my top 5, maybe even top 3 if it gets chosen. 10/10!