523/917 Halla Margrét: Haegt og hljott (Iceland 1987)

During the last 20 years we've had new countries flooding to the Eurovision Song Contest, but in the 1980's it was a completely different story. During that decade only two new countries debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest, Cyprus and Iceland. It took a while for Iceland to establish themselves in the Eurovision family, but from the beginning they took part with ambition and, most importantly, with good artists and songs.

Iceland's second Eurovision entry ever was a tender ballad sung delicately by 23 years old Halla Margrét. I considered this song as a nice but forgettable piece of music, but since 1987 it has grown on me and I believe that the juries (or the televoting audience) would have treated the song better 10 or 20 years later.

In 1987, when the eurovision songs did not circulate in the Internet for months before the contest, the song was not given the chance to grow and it was awarded the 16th place in the final results (among the record busting total of 22 songs).

The song was more or less forgotten after the contest held in Brussels, but I remember having a surprising encounter with it 7 or 8 years later. While visiting London I heard the loudspeakers of a fast food restaurant blasting out the english version of this particular Eurovision entry. How a UK restaurant ended up playing an english version of an almost ten years old Icelandic eurovision entry remains a mystery to me. Maybe there was a eurovision geek working in the restaurant that day.

According to some information found in the Internet Halla Margrét moved from popular music to classical music and had an operatic career. Could someone confirm is the soprano in this video singing Puccini actually the same Halla Margrét that represented Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest 22 years earlier?

My points 3/5.

608/917 Stefan & Eyfi: Nina (Iceland 1991)

A singer named Nina has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest several times. We remember among others the Spanish Nina from 1989, Nina Radojčić who took part for Serbia in 2011, Finnish Nina Åström from 2000, the Italian Nina Zilli taking part in 2012 and Nina Badrić who represented Croatia the same year. More than once has Nina also been the subject of a love song that has been sung on the Eurovision stage. So it was also in 1991, when the Eurosong 608 took part for Iceland.

The Icelandic entry in 1991 was composed by Eyjólfur Kristjánsson who also sang the song with Stefán Hilmarsson, who had previously represented Iceland three years earlier. The 1991 song was a powerful ballad with a strong performance from the duo. Unfortunately it didn't catch the juries attention and finished only 16th among 22 participants.

Maybe it was the icelandic language that made the juries not to notice this perfect song (which to me sounds much better in it's original language than in english), it might also be due to the dreaded second position in the running order. Still, I'd put my blame on the mediocre performance of the RAI orchestra and the lousy sound acoustics of studio 15 of Cinecittá for the bad result of the Icelandic entry.

To me this song is one of the best songs from the small Scandinavian country ever in the Eurovision Song Contest. The best way to listen to the song is to find the studio versio  at Spotify where you can hear the passion, the seamless cooperation between the two singers and the great string arrangement crowning the recording. A perfect Eurosong.

My points 4/5.