Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.05.2013, Blaðsíða 16

16The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 5 — 2013
Tell me about the song, “Ég á líf.”
What’s it about?
Well, it’s really open for interpretation. The
line “Ég á líf vegna þín,” (“I owe my life to
you”) can mean different things to different
people. I’ve been singing it at weddings and,
interestingly enough, funerals too. So some
people relate the lyrics to happy times in
their life while others relate to them at dif-
ficult times. We’re pretty happy with that.
Iceland hasn’t entered a song with Ice-
landic lyrics since Páll Óskar performed
"Minn hinsti dans" ("My Final Dance") in
1997, the last year that is was obliga-
tory for countries to sing in their mother
tongue. What kinds of pros and cons
weighed heaviest in the decision to stick
to Icelandic?
There was never really any question about it.
Since Icelanders have been given the choice
of singing in their mother tongue or English,
we’ve always chosen English. I personally
think it’s nicer for countries sing in their lan-
guage. Not only because you’re most sincere
when you speak your own language, but also
because it’s just fun to do something differ-
ent, to take the risk. You know, why not?
Have you gotten to hear it from people
who are unhappy with the decision?
Oh yeah, random people on the street stop
me and ask, ‘Why did you do that? Our
chances of winning are so much slimmer
now.’ It’s so funny, it’s like they’re asking
some handball team, ‘why didn’t you play
Óli [Stefánsson, Iceland’s premier handball
player, now retired] in the match?’ It’s like all
of a sudden, I’ve been put into the role of a
sports hero, which I don’t think is the right
way of looking at this. It’s not about showing
everyone what we’ve got or about winning
the thing. It’s about all of Europe meeting
and having a good time. It’s about the glitz
and the glamour, about throwing a party.
You don’t think that the rest of Europe
will be missing something important giv-
en that they don’t understand Icelandic?
Well, yeah, maybe. If you don’t understand
the language you might not connect with it
in the same way as people do here at home,
but I think it still works, and if anything it’ll
be more unique. “Ég á líf” is a bit interna-
tional too. I don’t think it’s difficult for a
Dane or a Norwegian or a Swede to imagine
what it means. You know, “líf,” “life,” So
there’s maybe that underlying impulse, and
then people can interpret it as they want.
And I think it’s just a fun idea. This is a
language spoken by a very small percentage
of the world, and it will sound, well maybe
it will sound horrible, but at least it’ll be
interesting.
PREJUDICES ABOUT
EUROVISION
You’ve been performing, acting and sing-
ing for years now, but you’ve never taken
part in Eurovision. Why not? Why now?
This is a really difficult question to answer
and I’m still asking myself the same ques-
tion today. Personally I’ve never been a big
Eurovision fan or had an urge to take part in
it, but this year it was a bit more personal.
When my good friend Pétur Jesú from the
band Dúndurfréttur called me and said he
had a song that had made it in a competi-
tion, my first reaction was, ‘Yeah, yeah Pé-
tur, I’m not going to enter this competition.’
After I listened to it though, I immediately
felt a connection, and I could tell that this
was coming from Pétur’s heart. So I thought,
okay, it’s totally different from everything
else I’ve done, but why not? Why not do it
and do it well, and then go back to making
my album? I never expected it to go all the
way. And then it won.
Do you feel like entering the Eurovision
contest will compromise your identity as
an actor and singer? Will you be branded
‘EUROVISION.’?
That’s maybe what I always feared, but then I
think, “Wow, does it matter? Why am I think-
ing it this way? It’s not a big deal, it’s just
Eurovision. Come on. But now I don’t know.
I think the nation as a whole takes it too seri-
ously and that scares me. It’s a bit scary if the
nation takes it so seriously that, by participat-
ing in this contest, one comes back branded.
But hey, Daníel Ágúst went to Eurovision [and
scored zero points], and then he went on to
become the frontman of GusGus.
Tell me about your experience since
winning the local Icelandic song contest.
What’s it like to be in the Eurovision
spotlight? Is there a lot of pressure?
I started to feel the pressure even before
the song contest finals. Already then I
started to feel just how crazy people were
about it all. I told Öggi [Örlygur Smári, com-
poser], who’s a big Eurovision fan, that I
didn’t know if I could deal with these people
and with the media. And he looked at me
and he said, ‘Eyþór, I’m going to warn you,
Eurovision changes people into monsters.’
And it’s true.
For me it was just a rash decision. I
thought if I somehow went all the way, that
it would be just like going to meet a bunch
of good friends for a fun board game and
what matters is, when its done, that we
would a good time, and when it’s done, I
can say, ‘hey remember when we played
that game.’
I think the Icelandic nation should think
of it that way too, and I want to believe that
that’s the majority view. I want to believe
that the nation’s inferiority complex is a
thing of the past. I want to believe that we
have realised that it’s just a TV show, that
it’s a night of glamour, that it can be fun be-
cause it’s so ridiculous or because people
think it’s such fun music. I want to believe
that.
IN IT TO WIN IT
But is your experience that the Icelandic
nation wants to win it maybe even more
than you do?
I have to admit, because people around me
are so relaxed around Eurovision, I thought
everyone thought this was just for fun. But
I think a lot of people take this too seriously
and then I mean both those who have an
uncanny interest in Eurovision and just want
us to win it, and those who are prejudiced
against it.
People stop me when I’m out on the town
or when I’m walking to Bónus and criticise
me for not showing what I’m made of, be-
cause maybe they’ve seen me perform Led
Zeppelin or Freddie Mercury at a concert in
the past. They’re like, ‘Why don’t you show
your whole vocal range? Why don’t you
show them what you can do?’ Imagine if
someone suggested that we perform it like
Robert Plant. That would be ridiculous.
If you’re on one extreme, we have to
win it, then you’re taking it too seriously.
If you’re on the other extreme, criticising
harshly everything around this, well then
you’re also taking it too seriously. Then
you’re a bit silly.
So how do you feel now, as you
get ready to go off to Sweden?
It’s been an interesting rollercoaster and I
haven’t even gone abroad. At some point I
told Pétur I don’t think I can deal with all of
this criticism in the media—the criticising of
my clothes, the way that I wore a Band-Aid,
how I cut a red fish, the music video—what
will it be like when I go abroad, and he said,
‘it’s much easier abroad. It’s Iceland that’s
difficult.’
Why do you think Iceland is this way?
It’s hard to say. We are all steered by the me-
dia, so it’s difficult to say that it’s the whole
nation. There are people out there who don’t
take everything so seriously. But I’m sure
it comes from our old inferiority complex
before we got our independence. Since then
it seems like we feel like we need to prove
ourselves to everyone else. A good example
of this is how Björk and Sigur Rós didn’t get
the deserved attention here in Iceland before
they got it abroad. That’s so typical Iceland.
But it’s important to remember, we’re not
competing in an athletic match. We’re just
going to play cards.
Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson is off to Malmö to represent Iceland in the annual
Eurovision Song Contest. He will be singing the song “Ég á líf” in Icelandic,
marking the first time in 16 years that Iceland’s song hasn’t been translated
to English. When the 23-year-old from Dalvík decided to take part in the
preliminary song contest in Iceland, he had no idea how seriously Iceland-
ers took it. “I thought it was crazy, but it’s even crazier than I thought,” he
told us the night before he left for Sweden. “Evidently everyone in Iceland
watches Eurovision, and if they don’t watch it, they know something about
it, and even if they don’t know anything about it, they still have opinions
about it.” In many ways, he said it was a relief to be finally going abroad.
Eyþór Ingi opens up about what it’s
like to represent Iceland
by Anna Andersen
"I th
ink the nation
as a whole takes
it
too seriously
an
d th
at scares me."
Photos: Alex Sigurðarson
Eu
ro
vision Turns Icelan
de
rs
Into Monsters