Iceland hasn’t been very successful in the Eurovision Song Contest lately, aside from Yohanna’s podium finish that is slowly disappearing over the horizon. Pollapönk, something different for the Nordic country at Eurovision, didn’t really change that situation either when they finished 15th in last year’s final.

Will Maria Olafs (the name that I keep forgetting) sing her home country back into the top 10, finally? When she won the national final with the best name ever (Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins) earlier this year, she did so by throwing out the more promising Feathers, while other, even better entries, such as Augnablik and Myrkrið hljótt, didn’t even get past the Icelandic semi-finals.

So we end up having Unbroken (the song title that I keep forgetting, ever since it’s not called Lítil skref anymore) in Eurovision. And this is a good example for how to not choose a song title. Couldn’t they have just called it “One step at a time”? Then the whole thing would be more memorable – both the title and the actual song. It’s almost the same as with Azerbaijan.

So, my verdict is that Iceland is wasting a whole year by sending a blank and unnecessary song. I don’t even hate it, it passes me by like the bus that I didn’t try to get. It’s just there, without a lot of variations, without a lot of interesting moments, without any emotion at all. It feels like the songwriter had no clue what to write, so he just wrote something. Of course it has its fans (I don’t understand you, mates), so it probably will take advantage of the generally weak line-up in semi-final 2 and just qualify. Once in the final, it could well end up in the middle realms of the scoreboard, and then remain forgotten for all time. In a normal year though, and I write this being slightly reminded of Soluna Samay, this would end up in the bottom 5, provided that it qualified.

Maria, who comes across as Emmelie de Forest’s little sister, is probably a nice young lady who doesn’t deserve such a harsh article. And I do have experience in writing harsh articles, and then changing my mind about the song, or finding that I like the person once I have met them, or both (as happened with Estonia 2013). At this moment though, be reminded that this is all about the song as I experience it now. And that’s not an experience worth remembering.

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