Iceland's National final for WV 46
22-years old
Ásgeir Trausti was Iceland's big newcomer and shooting star in 2012 when he reached the top of the charts with three solo songs (Sumargestur, Leyndermál and this one) and one song in collaboration with Blaz Roca („Hvitir Skor“, this song was the inspiration for my nickname). All his songs are written by his dad, who is a poem writer. To become famous in abroad, he created English versions of his song and published his album in other countries. As far as I know, he had already little successes in Australia, France and in the Netherlands. However, I prefer the Icelandic lyrics.
Asgeir is an introverted guy but his high-pitched voice is very touching and many people compare him to Bon Iver. His music is slowly, but smooth and relaxing.
This song '
Dyrð I dauðaþögn' (Glory in the silence of death) has a big significance to me. It makes me calm down if I am angry, it helps me to think about many things and in the moments in which I look at the stars in the night sky, there are hardly better song to listen to. (Gosh, that is a cheesy sentence
)
For Germans, who don't use ZenMate (or are too lazy to activate it):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyrR7Uw--es
Very special song, maybe the most special in this NF. It's a bit like Beatles meets Western, but this combination is damn good. The sound is catchy and amazing and it really stands out. It's a high risk to send songs like this to the WV, but maybe you'll enjoy it.
I dont know a lot about the band, and that's their only song I know.
Mono Town isn't even really famous in Iceland, not as famous as artists like Ásgeir or Kaleo. However this song at least reached the Icelandic charts. As far as I know the band is on the way up, hopefully we will hear more from them in the future.
An interesting fact about the singer Bjarki Sigurdsson: He is the brother of Dagur Sigurdsson, the head coach of the German handball national team (okay maybe you need to be German and like Handball to find this interesting
)
Hafið er svart (The sea is black) is a beautiful, melancholic song, without a real chorus, but with great instrumental influences. Haters will say it's a boring song but I love the tune of this song. I think it reached second place in the Icelandic charts two years ago. From all the 6 participating songs, this is the one that I got to know first. In between I completely forgot it until I checked my playlist few weeks ago and found it again. I think it deserves a chance, even though nowadays I have different favorites. Nevermind, it is still an enjoyable song.
Jonas Sig is an experienced artist, 40 years old and he mostly collaborates with his brass band 'Lúðrasveit Þorlákshafnar', which is also involved in this song. All songs of Jonas are in Icelandic language and all his albums are very successful in Iceland.
This one was a suggestion by Roman (Thank you Roman
). I had to hear it more often until I started loving it. The song might be repititive, but thats not disturbing at all. Even if the song was 20 minutes long it wouldn't become boring to me. The sonic tune is really lovely.
What I know about the band is that the singer Ryan Karazija is original from USA After his former band split up, he fulfied his dream and emigrated to Iceland, where he founded '
Low rear'. In my opinion it was a wise decision
For further informations of the band Roman might be the person to contact
This one is a bit creepy but I like this dark tune. The lyrics is very amazing, it's interesting to think about for what 'Clown' could be a metaphor.
Sóley is one of the most talented female singers (and pianists) in Iceland. If you do researches about Iceland artists I guess it won't take a long time until you find her. Sóley doesn't only do solo projects, she is also member of 'Seabar' together with Sindri Már Sigfússon (Sin Fang, you remember WV 40? ).
Her most famous song is 'Pretty face' (18 million views in Youtube) but I prefer '
Kill the clown'.
For those, who prefer rock songs (and didn't desperately give up after hearing the first 5 songs), '
Dark Water' from
Agent Fresco might be the one song that saves the whole national final.
I was looking a long time for good Icelandic rock songs, for purpose of variety. My impression is that rock music is a bit rare in Iceland. If I asked people from Iceland about rock music they said like „wow, we have so many great artists“ but when I asked for names, they dont answer anymore :?
Agent Fresco proves that Icelandic people can do brilliant and modern Pop-Rock songs. However, Agent fresco is so much more than just a Rock band. They combine several different music genres, so that most of their songs are very different to each other. This song doesn't seem to be unique, it feels that I listened to similar songs before. However this isn't an imparing factor for me, cause I like this genre in general. The lead singer from Agent Fresco is Arnor Dan, who by the way also collaborated with Olafur Arnalds for other projects.
I dont set a deadline, there is enough time... I need to have the result at least one day before the DDL for the confirmation period is over
I'm happy about everybody who's voting for
!
Voted: ::emdl
gu ::neen
::ctln
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