Time for me to review the Icelandic entry
Greta Salome - Hear Them Calling
Status: It's a no no for me
sorry
Song: I've recently realized that Iceland in Eurovision was a special country to me because - apart from songs I disliked from the start ("No Prejudice", "Unbroken") - pretty much all their efforts were faders on me: only "Never Forget" stood the test of time. In other words, Iceland is not a very interesting participant at the moment imo, it's not that I find their entries bad, but they aren't great either, and it's a shame because their artists have potential. So it was announced that Greta Salome would come back on Eurovision stage after sharing a song there with Jonsi in 2012, but this time, she would be alone and bring a rather different music style from her past effort. It's difficult to put a label on "Hear Them Calling" as it includes folk, classical and pop elements: it starts gently with a guitar and xylophone, but it suddenly gets really dramatic with the introduction of a fast-paced beat and male back vocals. Actually this seems to be the chorus, followed by an instrumental hook (I can't tell what instrument it is) and vocalises of the same melodic line. That part is supposed to be strong, impactful and catchy I guess, but I don't know why it reminds me of a random fun fair tune (which is not a good reference to me for a Eurovision entry), however it sounds kinda Icelandic, which is the only quality I find to it. The rest of the song is pretty much a copy and paste of the first minute, the bridge annoys me big time, the repetition is supposed to help build up, but I just find it uninspired and useless, an instrumental part would have been better to me. "Never Forget" was much much better in terms of composition and arrangements imo, whereas that efforts sounds half finished only: there were some good ideas but the final product didn't live up to my expectations. It even disappoints me that Greta, as a classically-trained musician, felt satisfied with it tbh. Anyway, putting the musical aspect aside, the biggest mistake was probably to go for the English version of the song. I'm sorry (not sorry) but I genuinely don't care if the song was originally written in English, the song seems to have an Icelandic feel to it: why not keep the mystery and beauty of your mother tongue too? This is not the first time their effort completely lost its charm and uniqueness anyway, someday I hope they'll understand that blending in doesn't always pay off. The lyrics deal with the positive and negative voices we all hear around us in our lives, as well as the decision not to listen to the negative ones while being positive towards others. It is indeed an interesting message to convey, but sadly the English lyrics didn't do it justice imo. Overall, I objectively recognize the thoughts put into the song, but unfortunately, it doesn't do anything to me when I listen to it: it's like water flowing over stones.
Voice: Greta is a better musician than she is a vocalist, still I guess she did a good job. Neither outstanding, nor bad, I believe she would have been more comfortable without her scenography, but that's another story. I'm not that fond of her voice, but that's just personal taste. Backing vocalists were nice.
Staging: Iceland went for a very visual performance. Greta started singing in the dark with only a spotlight above her head, then her silhouette was progressively lit. As she got down on her knees and began her dance routine, the LED floor displayed what seemed like a blue sky with black birds flying. During the chorus, giant hand shadows and human silhouettes appeared on the main backdrop, before turning into smoke. Then came a little trick that obliged Greta to walk towards the camera, so that her own silhouette in trompe l'oeil style wows people once it disappears. I admit that part was well done. Then the hands came back to reach her. All this visual work was of course nice to look at, BUT we've unfortunately seen that before and - at least for me - it didn't have the same impact. Yes, Mans didn't invent projectors, but it was kinda unseen the way it was used in 2015. Besides, Sergey performed earlier in the same "category". Also, I think the coldness and gloominess of the performance didn't fit the rather joyful mood of the song, it was mismatched imo. Apart from the visuals, the dance routine was too much for me. Overall, I think there was too many things going on, which distracted me from the song (yes, I heard it the first time during the semi and I couldn't remember anything about it before the recap was on), less is more tbh. As for her clothes, Greta wore a leather-like one-piece black outfit with fringes on her arms, shorts, tights and high boots: I didn't like the fringes, the rest was ok.
Outcome: With all the hype surrounding the song, I thought (like most people) that it would qualify (even though I don't like it), but Greta ended up being the Kate Ryan of 2016 since she has been ranked 13th with both juries and televoters. I'm not sure what didn't work, maybe performing after Russia (that had a similar staging) might have hurt them, maybe people didn't get the song, who knows? Personally, I found the performance quite rushed and surprisingly not memorable, it wasn't as effective and striking as in their NF. "Hear Them Calling" is 37th out of 42 in my personal ranking, the song goes nowhere to me and the beautiful backdrops couldn't make up for that. It's Heroes all over again: style over substance. Sorry Iceland, I never have truly rooted for you since I started watching Eurovision in 2009, but I'm hopeful that it'll change in the coming years: you have talented artists and composers with potential, now you have to find a song that is really solid. And think twice before opting for English lyrics, Icelandic is a beautiful language and it may add character to your entries: please learn from your mistakes!
See you next year!
