Iceland is not going to qualify. The boos for this song were very loud in the Athens arena, and it was performed awfully. It is what I feared it always was: a one-trick pony, with a trick that Europe will not get. And even if they do get it, they are not going to vote for a performance that is just beyond weird.
To be fair, “Silvia Night” was never meant to be a straightforward performance. The exaggerated Icelandic character, styled Silvía Nótt, was played by actress and singer Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir, and the English-language Eurovision entry, “Congratulations”, was built around her fictional celebrity persona and outrageous self-confidence. Iceland had selected the song in February, when it was performed as the Icelandic-language “Til hamingju Ísland”.
But the act was not merely eccentric. The EBU had objected to profanity in the submitted lyrics, and the disputed line was changed for the live semi-final to “I’ll freaking win”. That, along with the shouting, posing and general assault on good taste, made the whole thing feel deliberately provocative. The audience’s whistles and boos were certainly not an illusion.
In seven days, she has managed to ruin a perfectly good song with an act that is over the top, overstated and over-hyped.
If she had toned it down a wee bit, it would have been fantastic. But tonight she is going home without performing it a second time.
Postscript: The prediction was right, although the official result came after this was written. Performing last, 23rd in the 18 May 2006 semi-final, Iceland finished 13th with 62 points and did not qualify for the final. So Silvia Night’s one-trick pony did indeed fall at the final fence.
