Social media is great. One can get in touch with people from all corners of the world, share thoughts, photos, funny stuff and more. But social media can also be a cruel and hurtful place.
And Iceland’s Ari Ólafsson experienced the nastier side firsthand after he won Söngvakeppni 2018 last weekend.
After his first rendition of “Our Choice”, Ari became overwhelmed with emotion. And who’d blame him?
The performance was flawless and Ari gave it his all. He poured his heart out, and dared to shed a tear afterwards. And then he went ahead and won the whole damn thing!
But of course there are people out there, who just can’t handle a hint of emotion being shown. At any time. And those people were quick to judge.
“Sissyboy!”, “Grow some b***s!” “Stop being such a wuss!” “He’s faking it for sympathy votes!” were just some of the comments seen on Icelandic media after the show.
Nasty and uncalled for. Even hateful at times. All because a guy laid his heart and soul on the table and let his emotions show.
Lets recap this a little bit.
The 19 year old won the right to represent his country at the biggest show in Europe, if not the world.
He was effectively told by his fellow countrymen and women that: “You’re the best. We want you!”
This is the biggest opportunity of his career so far. He will get to introduce himself to the world and to fly the Icelandic flag along the way. And he’ll do his absolute best to make the Nordic nation proud.
Of course he showed emotion. Of course he had feelings. He is human after all. He’s not a robot.
Luckily, many people also praised Ari for his raw and genuine response. Music Crowns, a Facebook page which delves into everything and anything music, picked up the story about Ari. They shared a lovely video with their 2.7 million fans. It celebrates Ari for being so honest, using the hashtag #WeAllCry.
There’s nothing wrong with letting a few tears out. ?Even on live TV.#WeAllCryArtist: Ari Ólafsson ??
Posted by Music Crowns on Friday, March 9, 2018
And it’s true.
Everybody should cry. Men too. It’s not just for small children and women. We’re all allowed to feel things, regardless of the situation.
Thankfully Ari is brushing off the hate like a boss! And on Sunday he jetted off to Lithuania for the grand final of the country’s Eurovision 2018 selection. He opened the show with a reprise of his own entry for Lisbon.
Ari, kudos for showing us the real you. Never ever stop being you, whatever the haters say. After all, are any of them about to step on the Eurovision stage and sing in front of 200,000,000 people? No, didn’t think so! The wiwibloggs team applauds you.
Unless he performs shirtless he’ll get nowhere
His personality and stage presence are good but the song itself makes me disappointed. May be they should consider the revamping. But I wanna advice that he shouldn’t cry because he did the best. Critics have both positive and negative side, you can channel yourself – to read or ignore them; and when you chose to read just embrace or neglect them. That’s my honest opinion. Good luck in Lisbon.
I looooooooooooooove his smile!! If you don’t give him votes based on that alone, your heart should be declared a territory of Antartica! 🙂
Because is slow news day, I want to make sure you know Overthinking Eurovision is back and the first episode in 2018 is Spain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPCAT8WVO0E
Let’s face it, if a woman had done this no-one would have batted an eyelid. Let’s call it out for what is really is, everyday sexism.
Or a slow news day.
I guess wiwiboggs is waiting for Albania revamp, or what?
Why don’t we have the poll 43?
I wonder what video Albania is doing that requires such long editing to be completed. They had the most time available to make it all come together compared to other countries, yet they are the last to make their reveal.
Or maybe they’re doing it on purpose to create hype?
They could also have withdrawn…
We’re still missing two official videos: Albania and Armenia.
Serbia, Denmark, Iceland, Portugal as well
Oh, wow, ok. Cool.
Was Portugal’s beautiful video with the flowers not official?
Those countries have been added to ESC channel’s Playlist as the official video!
Armenia and Albania haven’t been added!
Also do we know Netherlands and Italy’s ESC edit?
@Kris. Thanks for asking. I had forgotten about that.
Netherlands in theory is an easy edit (just cut out all the instrumentals).
Italy will be much more challenging. One of the Verses might have to be cut, oh dear.
Maybe Rasmussen will film an actual music video for “Higher Ground” after he comes back from Lisbon. 🙂
Nah it’d be useless if he made a MV that late
Polina Gagarina was crying that made Mans to not even understand he won. Mans probably thought Polina won if she was crying so much.
Viva ISLANDIA BIG BESO FROM SPAIN TO ARI MUAKKK
Too bad this’ll probably be another Estonia 2016.
Or Estonia 2017. Let’s just say Estonia.
I hope not! 🙁
I don’t think there was that big of a backlash otherwise this would have been brought up a lot earlier.
This is called making a mountain out of an anthill.
Also some of these comments probably were directed at his song and that it defeated a much better prospect of making Iceland avoid being last in its semifinal in the form of i stormi
Personally, it’s not one of my favorite songs though it’s growing on me However, people should remember there is a person singing this song with dreams, hopes, desires and feelings I’m sure those people wouldn’t want to get treated like that, so why are they treating others like that? Everytime someone gets a chance to boost his/her career, there will be people to stop it from happening Ari, don’t ever stop showing your emotions and stay real forever! Full support and lots of love, not “from Israel” as we usually say in the Eurovision community, this time, from me, Roy,… Read more »
I’m drunk AF and making new friends under Netta’s Toy video on YouTube. 😀
Um, k.
Sorry, off topic. 😀
The article is screaming for another topic. 😛
Almost 2m views for Netta, #12 trending in UK, jumped from #35 to #9 trending in Poland within an hour. She slays.
I adore Ari as a person, but his song is as attractive as an open autopsy!
Netta is much above everybody, she proved the serious messages don’t have to sound like funeral songs or national anthems.
Go Netta, you are unique.
She doesn’t care about modern time preachers (Salvador) and I love her for that!
Salvador will give the trophy to Netta. This is what 2018 needs.
I live for that moment!
Then I suggest you find another motivation in life because this is not going to happen.
It’s weird how they still care about him. Says it all really. I’ve read that trophy sentence so many times already, everywhere. sigh
Toy will be the best hit Eurovision ever had since ABBA. We all will look like fools if we don’t vote for her. Many think that Eurovision is a joke for the world with songs like that. All contrary. The world will laugh if will find out we didn’t voted for the biggest hit of 2018-Toy.
Exactly how I shut one snowflake on YouTube. Imagine all of us in the same club and Toy comes on. Whoever doesn’t join the party on the dance floor might as well be dead.
It is not going to have my vote. I sincerely hope this creature doesn’t win because she will lead Eurovision back to the dark age of the 00’s and will make once again Eurovision a laughing stock
Eurovision will always be a laughing stock. But do I bother? Jamala only added to it when a song about the WW2 won. It doesn’t change the fact that Netta is an amazing performer, as Jamala is. And she can rock the party as Jamala can rock the WW2 memorial.
Time will tell. I am not buying into the hype Israel currently has but if that’s what the people want, they shall get it. While I do not share your enthusiasm about Netta, I agree that she would be a huge step up from Jamala.
I just adore her live performances and I am sure she can deliver this track live. She absolutely won me over with her Sing Hallelujah. And she seems like a sweet and cheeky girl. She deserves high place if it’s only to slap the body shamers in their faces. You wouldn’t believe how many ‘fat’ comments are under her video. Sad and pathetic. For crying out loud, we need fun in ESC. Moldova last year proved it beautifully! ESC is not a pompous San Remo festival. It’s a celebration of unity and a great time to party.
Esc is a celebration of unity and diversity. Not just a sanremo or only circus like you want it to be.
I also have this feeling… But Israel is indeed very powerful and for now I can’t see any dark horse, really… Maybe the Netherlands? Maybe Portugal?… ehehe
I think it’s just a bad song
I love Salvador and I love Netta. And maybe Salvador will as well. He was dancing with Moldavia last year. Why are people creating this narrative Salvador vs. Netta? As Salvador, she is indeed an authentic artist. And this is what counts.
Because Salvador said in his winning speech that ”real music won”. He has made very clear in interviews that he has a certain idea about what instruments have ”soul”.
I don’t think Salvador is a bad person, but he made his mistakes, and he has another chance in Lisbon to say if he changed his mind or not. Maybe yes, maybe not. Be happy that he will have Lisbon to show whatever he wants to show about himself. Maybe he will say he became more open minded, or maybe he will eat a banana like Janeiro.
Oh no here we go again. He made things clear, that’s just your perspective. He also made other things clear in non english interviews, so how would you know. He was dancing to moldova last year, loved italy, he enjoys bruno mars pop music and rap, his musical taste is diverse asf. No he hasnt made any mistakes, he shared his opinion, sure he could have used other words but well, i also think he was misunderstood by people like you. And lol, as if he gives a d* mn about your ‘chances’ or even the trophy, which is nothing… Read more »
And by the way, serious, damaging insults that he received from the beginning to the end not only towards him but his sister, looks, health, etc. I applaud his sanity and self control.
Yes, indeed. I didn’t mentioned that very dark and horrible part that happened last year. I now see people concerned about bad comments on Netta’s look, which indeed are horrible. But these same people would make the same kind of jokes and comments about Salvador’s gestures and wishing he would be dead…
L’ouiseau, the hypocrisy mentioning and giving so much value to his speech is ironic, people who also insulted other contestants and their music, from that year as well. I remember reading on this website, people saying he should die, that they’d be happy if he couldnt find a new heart, etc. Sick things that i dont even wanna keep talking about. Glad he doesnt read comments nor uses the internet much, if i was a contestant and saw it i’d be very affected, mentally and emotionally. These were things that i read since the beginning and after he won, plus… Read more »
Hear hear
Firstly, he didn’t said it like that. Secondly, he and his bands also use electronic instruments. Thidly, he admitted that that speech was not very thought through and came out a bit clumsy and possibily misunderstood. Fourthly, he is not at all against fun. In his concerts he has a lot of fun songs. Fiftly, he is a big fan of hip hop and uptempo r n’ b. And finally, I say it again, it’s about authenticity and artistry. Both Salvador and Netta have that. So, I find it real foul and evil to stirr up this false antogonism and… Read more »
Both Sobral and Barzilai are musically mediocre creatures at best that seek attention. There is a good way to shut both up :
Crown Benjamin or Mikolas the winner (truly talented singers with great songs – no chicken gimmicks and elitistic attitudes) and help this contest finally move forward a bit.
Very few people create such a narrative. To the majority both are eurovision novelties that draw the contest back to the dark ages of dated music and novelty acts respectively. If this joke act israel brings win we should all say farewell to any effort to make the contest musically relevant to the real world, a track it has been steadily on since 2009 at least and that severely damaged last year. If Barzilai wins there is no way back. It’s time for good real world pop to make a comeback and thus why it should be between Sweden (the… Read more »
My opinion: Israel and Australia should not participate, they are not Europe !!!
He’s sweet and I’ll cry with him when he finishes dead last in his SF.
I cried with OG3NE but I won’t cry when he deservedly finishes dead last because he should have known better than to accept singing such a piece of… everyone should have known better.
OG3NE were awesome!
They were, indeed. There won’t be any big emotional moment like OG3NE this year, but fun stuff like Waylon and Eye Cue, which is good, too.
At the beginning I was very sceptical. The songs were bland and forgettable. But now I’m back on track with my ESC party on 12th of May.
I do not understand why people have no life and simply critque others. Full respect to this beautiful soul
ALEKSEEV HAS A NEW VERSION OF FOREVER WHERE IS IT
Not here, I guess.
It’s not a new version, it’s the video for the original Russian-language song “Navsegda” that’s out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7GQxh_c55E
So much better.
It’s a shame that he cant deliver it live, terrible voice.
I saw people asking why bulgaria was sending black people to represent them, racism and homophobia is alive, unfortunately.
I’m not racist, but I do not agree to have Americans representing a country like Bulgaria!
Tbh Bulgaria is a small country in the Balkans so to manage to get not one but two black Bulgarians did sound interesting I was disappointed when I found out that they were American but nvm.
Finally some attention to this poor guy
there’s gonna be some ESC parties in the UK, Spain and so on why isnt wiwi team talking about it
Full 43 complete
1 Czech Republic
2 Estonia
3 France
4 Belgium
5 Sweden
6 Italy
7 Portugal
8 Greece
9 Ukraine
10 Cyprus
11 Israel (waiting for the live version)
12 Netherlands
13 Bulgaria
14 Australia
15 Austria
16 Poland
17 Macedonia
18 Denmark
19 Spain
20 Finland
21 Norway
22 Latvia
23 Germany
24 Croatia
25 Malta
26 Slovenia
27 Lithuania
28 Belarus
29 UK
30 Azerbaijan
31 Switzerland
32 Ireland
33 Serbia
34 Albania
35 Hungary
36 Russia
37 San Marino
38 Montenegro
39 Romania
40 Georgia
41 Iceland
42 Armenia
43 Moldova
I really feel like he will qualify.
Not saying that i like him but………..we have many uptempo jams this year.
I would be crying too if I was stuck singing such a dated and boring song in front of my entire country and then 200 million people
IT’S GOSPEL
But yes, it’s TERRIBLE
????????? ????????????? ??? ???? ???????
http://ckpiz.info/page/tendernoe-soprovojdenie-pod-klyuch-barnaul/
I can’t believe Ari was stuck reading those nasty comments on social media! 🙁 Either way, here’s my full ranking: 01) Albania 02) Armenia 03) Spain 04) Switzerland 05) Denmark 06) Iceland 07) Malta 08) Austria 09) Finland 10) France 11) Greece 12) Australia 13) Portugal 14) Ireland 15) Bulgaria 16) San Marino 17) Belarus 18) Slovenia 19) Norway 20) Montenegro 21) Belgium 22) Serbia 23) Romania 24) Latvia 25) Lithuania 26) Croatia 27) Ukraine 28) Russia 29) Germany 30) Azerbaijan 31) Hungary 32) Macedonia 33) Poland 34) Sweden 35) Czech Republic 36) Italy 37) Cyprus 38) United Kingdom 39)… Read more »
Yasss Team Eugent!!
Good top becca
I’m so sorry he had to deal with that. Poor guy. It took me a long time to learn to be open with my emotions, so I hope he doesn’t hesitate to be open with his feelings.
It’s sad that icelanders are doing this
Next Male Model of ESC, for sure 🙂
Oh yeah. He’ll at least place high in THAT 🙂
ok, where is the final version of “Mall”?
Later this week. 🙂
Wow so terrible that he was attacked like that, and trying to be shamed. He is a beautiful person, and those other horrible people are blinded by toxic masculinity that is a disease in the world today that we need to get rid of. Congrats to him and his beautiful authentic self
I completed agree Charles! Society is so full of double standards right now. It’s okay to be gay, it’s okay to be a woman, be yourself, yet enter a song in a competition and get completely ripped apart for it.
Society is so messed up it hurts.
that’s why russians should not be allowed………………………unless they change the law…
I don’t even really like his song, but Ari had every right to cry! God, why can’t men show their emotions for once without having a bunch of people giving him flack for it?!
People on the internet are so mean. Let the guy have his moment and cry if he wants to. He certainly isn’t the first (or last) person to cry at a Eurovision event anyway
NOBODY GIVES A DAMN
HE WON’T EVEN QUILIFY ANYWAY
Yes he will. 🙂
No, he won’t
Elenie foureira, the fortune teller….?
This fortune could have been predicted by a leaf …it’s so obvious.
Of course it is ok to cry, I would worry if someone doesn’t cry.
What a beautiful article!
Sending my support to him <3
Well, I am also a guy named Ari and I cried my eyes out when I watched OG3NE perform last year because I was so touched by their beautiful harmonies and message that resonated very strongly with me. Ironically, they sang “Cry no more”. 😛 I noticed him cry after his performance. The immediate conclusion I jumped to was “Anything to get some more votes” because I simply don’t see how one can be touched by such an awful song. Actually, I jokingly said: “I assume how was crying because he realized how bad his own song is.” All joking… Read more »
It probably wasn’t the song but the moment itself.
Now we have a full team of 43 1 Israel 2 Finland 3 Denmark 4 Belarus 5 Norway 6 Czech Republic 7 United Kingdom 8 Moldova 9 Sweden 10 Malta 11 Croatia 12 Cyprus 13 Azerbaijan 14 Serbia 15 Switzerland 16 Ukraine 17 Macedonia 18 Poland 19 Russia 20 Estonia 21 Australia 22 Greece 23 Latvia 24 San Marino 25 Bulgaria 26 Austria 27 Albania 28 Georgia 29 Germany 30 Slovenia 31 Italy 32 Iceland 33 Hungary 34 Spain 35 Ireland 36 Netherlands 37 France 38 Montenegro 39 Belgium 40 Lithuania 41 Romania 42 Armenia 43 Portugal Please respect the… Read more »
I respect you
Thanks Aaron for 7th not many people like my country’s song this year though just hope we get on top 15
I highly doubt it man!
This will be bottom 5 in televote…. The juries need to really push the song for it to be Top 15! And I don’t see that happening either
I think what Kristin was writing as a comment somehow ended up as an article.
Seriously though, if the guy wants to cry, he can cry. With a song like this, he probably wasn’t expecting to win. Just hope it doesn’t work the other way and he ends up dehydrated when he sees his placing in May.
Icelanders did that? jeez
What’s wrong with this Icelanders? What’s the freaking problem with a guy crying? Is a man not a human anymore? Poor kid…let him show his emotions like any other person. He’s more manly than all the chickens hating on him.
All my support from Portugal!
Cry all you want Ari, put all your tears out, I like you more like that!
I’m glad about this article.
We are indeed all human and we all cry. No wonder there are gender stereotypes when we expect men to not to show their emotions and then we’re surprised that we’re experiencing domestic violence.
We are emotion-full bodies. Full stoo.
It’s great he cried. He cares.
I think he doesn’t love and respect himself, that’s why he cried. Poor kid.
Whaaaat?! are you been serous? oh my….
I think he showed that he loves and respects himself enough by shamelessly showing his emotions in public, without feeling less of a man for it.
Well we now know that you are a horrible human being that just wastes resources on our planet.
Why are you so naive, people… I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t sincere and wanted to get hype and acceptance, because he knows about his bad situation very well.
What bad reputation could this pretty sweetie have??
Strategy, smart news , acceptance that’s what you need in order to be in final
No. Why are you so mean? Why do you say such things about someone you don’t know without any reasons for it?
#MenCry #MenDance #BreakTheTaboo
Dear ARI!
I’m witing to you comeing to israel calling.
Promise you that you will be very happy here.?
With all the talk about mental health that we’ve heard lately, especially with regards to men, some people haven’t learned anything… this toxic behaviour says a lot about these people and their insecurities, because someone who is truly self-confident doesn’t need to put others down to feel better about themselves.
That toxic behavior also comes from esc fans from all over europe. sad but true, dont come preaching for gay rights when you racist and an @sshole to others as well.
It’s okay to cry. What kind of nonsense is even questioning that. Hold on, Ari. You seem really nice. All the best! 🙂
What a sweet kid (even though he’s only 3 years younger than me). Of course, he would cry, he just won a huge competition and will be representing his country in an international event. Guys need to be more open with their emotions and not a brick wall. These people are awful and the only thing they made me do was to love Ari. I really hope he revamps his song though.
There’ll always be trolls, bullies and keyboard warriors looking for any excuse to tear someone down. Ari’s passion and sensitivity are signs of strength, not weakness – if he can tap into those while performing in Lisbon then he’ll do himself and Iceland proud, regardless of where he finishes. Look, I think most of us will agree that “Our Choice” is one of the poorest songs at Eurovision this year, and that it doesn’t deserve to qualify. But even if it finishes with nul points, Ari himself is still a great young singer with a lot of potential. When the… Read more »
This whole article is a bit ridiculous and try hard tbh don’t you have more important things to cover?
You can volunteer to become a new contributor.
I have clinical depression and I’m a man.
I am FURIOUS about reading about the intolerance and IGNORANCE of people still in 2018.
SO WHAT IF A MAN CRIES!?
Agree 100% with this article. It always upsets me when others criticize people showing emotion. It’s those who really give everything that they have to something who get emotional. (Of course, not everybody shows those emotions, which is fine, but, if you truly gave your heart and soul to something, you should be feeling pretty strong emotions at that time.)
All I know is this: He’s adorable and the crying made me want to hug him. He’s perfect. The haters are JEALOUS he can FEEL. Like honestly, all these social media trolls have ISSUES with themselves. ALWAYS.
Only crap people make fun of other’s emotions like that. Luckily they are always dismissed as crap, while beautiful, golden and sweet Ari will always be loved and liked in his life. Even if the song doesn’t qualify, he will have a great career, everyone will want to be with him, he will enjoy the best that this world offers. Meanwhile whoever hates him will continue decaying and being bitter until the forces of evolution take care of them.
Aww such a sweet and cute guy
Protect him ??
His only 19
if the worst response he got was a couple people saying “Stop being such a wuss!” then that’s not really a huge backlash, if so you all would have to write articles about the ~backlash~ for every song that gets released given how many rude things get said on this website
seems like not a big deal idk, especially because there’s no sources in this article other than the vague ‘icelandic media’ ? ? ?
Bully!
… ooookay, what would you rather hear from me then?
asking why this article exists = Very Offensive Bullying, apparently
You should say he is adorable and that whoever bullied him should be quarantined into resocialization programs!
Well those are just veeeery few examples. I saw a loooooot of bashing on twitter, so yeah I have evidence.
They were probably either farmers from villages that kill sheep all day or drugged up thugs with sordid lives.
He won’t qualify but he’s entitled to cry.
> And those people were quick to judge.
Arseholes.
Wow! I can’t believe this is still happening nowadays! Some people need to evolve. They don’t realize they are making a fool of themselves. Of course, everyone should cry if they feel the need to do it, in private or in public. In fact, I think is good to cry once in a while, as it helps to relieve stress and bad emotions.
Well done, Ari! #WeAllCry
no wonder he was crying, he realised he’s in SF 1
He might make it. Not many ballads in semi 1.