Iceland review - 2013, Page 17

ICELAND REVIEW 15
a few songs in and Hafdís Huld
taps her mike suspiciously. Then
she backs up into the room, tests
the mike from there, and asks the audience
whether they can hear her properly. They
can. In the compact intimate setting of Gamli
Baukur, a wooden quayside restaurant and
bar in Húsavík, North Iceland, everyone can
hear this petite woman with the big voice—
no mike is necessary.
Moments later Ragga Gröndal seems to
realize something and checks the electrical
box behind her. She bursts out laughing.
“Girls, I know what the problem is… All
the lines are on mute!” Apparently, they
had muted the sound after testing earlier
in the day and forgotten about it. They are
admittedly tired after having driven 2,000
km (1,240 miles) in five days. Hafdís quips
ironically: “And here we are to prove that
we don’t need any men to help us out with
hooking things up.”
Hafdís, Ragga and fellow soloists Védís
Hervör and Lára Rúnars went on a tour
of the West Fjords and North Iceland from
August 20 to 25 to promote their lat-
Iceland Review catches up with soloists Hafdís Huld, Ragga Gröndal, Védís Hervör and Lára Rúnars in
Húsavík, who are touring the country together to help fix the gender imbalance in the music world.
Rocking Húsavík! ‘the fantastic four’
pose with the ‘traveling lamp’
in gamli Baukur.