Semi-final one in Iceland’s Söngvakeppni 2016 is over, and we now know the identities of the first three finalists, who will fight for the Icelandic ticket to Stockholm on February 20th.
After powerful live performances, the Icelandic public voted for Greta Salóme with “”Raddirnar”, Karlotta Sigurðardóttir with “Óstöðvandi” and Erna Hrönn Ólafsdóttir & Hjörtur Traustason with “Hugur minn er”. All the acts were overcome with joy, although nobody powerslided the stage, like Friðrik Dór did last year, when he made it to the finals with “Once Again”. And nobody tore their pants (again, Friðrik).
Greta Salóme “Raddirnar”
Karlotta Sigurðardóttir “Óstöðvandi
Erna Hrönn Ólafsdóttir & Hjörtur Traustason “Hugur minn er”
Ingólfur Þórarinsson with”Fátækur námsmaður”, Sigga Eyrún with “Kreisí” and EVA “Ég sé þig” failed to qualify.
Tonight’s show was 100% televote. However, after the second semi-final, where three more songs will advance, the jury has an option to play its wild card and send one more song to the finals.
So, the first three songs of a possible seven, will appear on stage again in two weeks in the biggest grand final Iceland has ever seen.
What are your thoughts? Did the Icelandic public vote for the right songs?
Greta Salome has written Eurovision Flop of the Year all over her performance. Although the song is catchy, it smells like Eurovision, even if you didnt know this song is meant for the song contest. It wants to be mysterious, euphoric and anthemic at the same time. The live version sucks quite a bit. Not only the song, the performance too is plainly inspired by very recent successes. I am sorry, but there is no success without originality. This song will sink like the Titanic when it hit the Icelandic iceberg. I would have guess in Iceland the people know… Read more »
@Héctor
Thank you for bringing life to my dilemma, now I know why the instrumental part sounded so amazing to me.
I am such a huge Of Monsters and Man fan !!!!
Greta for the win !
I’m disappointed, that Kreisi failed to qualify. It was catchiest song ever. The show was Crazy and Fun. Hope it will get the wildcard.
Greta will win. She has amazing voice, best show, great song.
For sure the staging make this song so much better, it didn’t appeal to me with the studio version, but this perfomance is very enjoyable. The problem (or not, as the result is more than good) is that it’s too much inspired by Mans and Loreen, as you say. Also the song itself reminds me a lot to Of Monster And Men, not only in the song style, but in the performance too with those shadows as they do in their videos. So now, we have a good song with an enjoyable staging, she will need to improve both her… Read more »
If Greta wins this thing I hope she doesn’t switch the lyrics to English.
Even tho I think the staging was inspired by a few Eurovision performances, It does elevate the song BUT the lyrics in Icelandic truly make it magical and dreamy.
Raddirnar is an awesome song! And the staging was perfect! Greta sung it very well too. I think she has got to win.
When I first listened to Raddirnar, I didn’t see the singer but I screamed ‘OMG THIS IS SO GOOD’. Then I found out the artist was Greta and then I got more excited. And now with the staging it’s only better! Potentionally my first place this year if it wins.
Greta all the way. What a lovely song
i cringed a little at her ripping off mans and loreen in the staging but i got to say, it really elevates the song for me! so good job!
@charles
I really like the song, already did so before I saw this performance. It’s a nice amalgamation of a lot of things Icelandic, a bit of Jónsi (of Sigur Rós fame), a bit Of Monsters and Men, and it’s just a good, simple, uplifting pop song. I don’t know about the lyrics of course, I hope they’re not cringeworthy if they send an English language version to Stockholm. In terms of winning chances that doesn’t really matter though, ‘we are the heroes of our time, heroooooooes, oooooes’ is hardly Shakespeare either.
Greta’s plain amazing. Please send her to stockholm
I call BS on the people who think Greta was a Loreen rip-off – if she were one, she should have made Raddirnar into an EDM song and it’s far from an EDM song. Her outfit is not even like Loreen’s that is revealing on the chest. I think Greta actually took her notes about the last two Swedish winners: She was a lot better than Mans Zelmerlow in the whole “controlling the LED visuals with my hands” thing – Mans did not perfect that the first time he did it for Melfest – he only perfected it by the… Read more »
KARLOTTA was my favorite! Her vocals weren’t the best, but the performance and stage makes you take that feeling away
Greta, well, she’s my 6th, and she may have gone down in my top, I expected a lot more from her
I have no opinion on Erina, she’s my 4th, but I really don’t know.
Greta’s song is plain boring, I don’t know what everybody here sees in that mediocre attempt. Oh, yes, I do – a potential comeback. For a comeback, most ESC fans would eat from the floor.
Karlotta was the best tonight. No doubt about it. Fierce, confident, simple – the song shined! Erna & Hjörtur were a nice surprise too, very good on stage 😀
I’m happy that my top 3 made it through. Personally, i’m relieved that Kreisi didn’t make it through. From the choreography it looked like they were demonising those with mental illness – If i was the director i would have put a stop to that immediately! Apart from that, it was a good show from Iceland from what i saw. 🙂
@Charles
Yeah, but remember Mans last year. The staging won him the competition, and while his song was good is was generic, we’d all heard it before. This musically is fantastic, and you can tell she feels what she’s singing.
Tbh they should have just crowned Greta the winner after her performance. Pure class, vocally incredible as she hit every note and you could clearly hear here. The song itself is fantastic – very orchestral and quite Of Monsters and Men-like (which goes down well in Europe). The Staging is honestly the best staging of the Eurovision season so far. She could wipe the floor in Stockholm, and I’m sure she will because theres no way she can’t win. The one thing I’m not sure about is a language change. So far as I know she’s said nothing about it,… Read more »
Greta will be flop with juries at Eurovision, she had weak voice .
One thing is to judge the way a song is presented … the other thing is to judge the song itself … and apparently everybody loved the way the song was presented … but is everybody here really listening to the song alone and feeling it or believing in it? Or is everybody a bit too distracted by the visuals here? I understand the power staging and visual has on everyone who follows Eurovision … but whether we like it or not .. there is a still a song there that is or should be the centre piece of all… Read more »
Karlotta Sigurðardóttir is best choice for Iceland this year. She sound good and in live. I m dissapoint with live version of Saara Aalto from Finland.
I agree with most readers here…Greta was clearly the best of the lot. Vocals: On point! Song: Mystical and unique! Staging: Very creative, impactful and appropriate. Let’s hope she takes it to Stockholm! 😀 Go, go, Greta!
Get a grip! Mans did not invent shadows! If anything the staging is more reminiscent of Ukraine 2011. Staging aside, Greta HAS to win in Iceland. None of the other songs are worth bothering with.
Too soon for a female version of Mans performance.
And I agree he did NOT invent it, but if he did WIN with it last year.
You can obviously see the inspiration behind the staging.
Salóme’s performance was far and away my favourite. I love the song but the staging is certainly Eurovision standard. It goes one better than Måns with that huge rear-projected (I think?) screen, and the atmosphere created by those side spotlights and yellow downward spotlight is brilliant. I really hope Iceland chooses Gréta this time- I think it would struggle to be beaten by anything in SF2.
Greta was soooooooo good, and the staging works soooo well with the song, I don’t care about the comparisons to Mans and Loreen, thos worked perfectly
Karlotta Sigurðardóttir is clearly the best here. Erna Hrönn & Hjörtur Traustason are too ugly for ESC. Greta Salome is big misunderstanding.
I’m sorry but how are these two stagings even similar? Mans used a projector, Greta is using an LED screen. She ‘interacts’ with it once or twice, and it’s just there, while whole song of Mans was concentrated on the projection.
Greta’s song still somehow didn’t fully convince me, but the idea with a shadow play was wonderful. Now I’m pretty sure she’ll go to Stockholm.
Karlotta disappointed me on stage. I love her song, but after such a performance I wasn’t sure if I want her in a final.
I’m extremely surprised Erna and Hjörtur made it to the final. I was sure it would be either Ingólfur with his funny act or Sigga with a disturbing one (and that Pong, lol :P). I would prefer one of them.
oh, forgot – I agree with everybody below. Greta was the best of the night, by far. I hope she’ll be the one flying the Icelandic flag in Stockholm, and bring home a TOP10 spot, at least.
If Mans didn’t use the staging he did last year to win, Greta wouldn’t be using the similar staging this year. It’s like Malta 2015 trying to use Austria 2014.
Kreisi should’ve gone through, great entry.
Argh, I’ve missed a part of my comment before. I wanted to say “Mans has neither been either the first or the last”.
Anyway, I was also really underwhelmed by Óstöðvandi and Kreisí. The first lacked a bit of charisma, while the latter was maybe too crazy. During the performance I felt quite embarassed for all the faces the singer made. Like, around three or four strange expressions in something like ten seconds. it’s ok to channel the song’s message, but that was way too much!
Raddirnar is simply the best song and performance I’ve seen so far, in any of the national finals. Potential Eurovision winner right there.
The staging borrows quite heavily from Loreen, but ‘better well stolen than badly invented’, as we say in Dutch.
since when is any interactive kind of staging a rip-off? Lol, Mans didn’t invent it.
Greta coming for that deserved Icelandic victory at Eurovision !!!
Greta’s performance was absolutely amazing! It’s ok to make comparisons with Mans for the background, but of course Mans has neither been either the first to use this sort of technology. And to be honest I even think that Greta worked it even better! The choreografy fits the performance very well: it’s dark, sort of mystical and overall truly captivating. Just like the song.
Of all the other songs, I only liked Hjörtur & Erna’s, even though it’s a really common Eurovision ballad. Well, maybe It’s just Erna’s presence. I love her since that little masterpiece Augnablik was in 2013.
I have not liked all the Mans staging copying this year, but this staging was too interesting, I liked it a lot and it is my favorite song of the Icelandic selection. Hope she wins the whole thing!
Greta’s song, staging and vocal were all soooooo on point tonight. I love the Icelandic lyrics, but honestly, with English lyrics this could do very well for Iceland!
Greta slayed the pack. Okay yes you can make comparisons to Loreen and Mans, but she made it her own, it works so well with the song. It was beautiful and vocally she was on point. If, or when I should say, she wins she’s going straight to number one on my list and I could really see this winning for Iceland. Karlotta was a bit of a let down. The song is solid, but presence wise and vocally she just wasn’t there. Still, she deserved to qualify. I’m surprised about “Hugur Minn er”. I would have thought Iceland would… Read more »