This article forms part of the OnEurope archive and was originally published on oneurope.co.uk. It has been permanently migrated to oneurope.net, the official home of OnEurope.
The trees are our friends. We should love the trees. We should chop down the trees, cut them in half straight down the middle and glue them to a bit of MDF. And write NATURE on a blackboard next to them.
Anyway, as I was saying. Nature sounds a bit like Nætur, which leads me neatly on to Iceland and Maria Olafs.
Strictly speaking, “Nætur” wasn’t the Icelandic entry. María Ólafsdóttir, credited internationally as Maria Olafs, won Iceland’s Söngvakeppnin 2015 with “Unbroken” — the English version of “Lítil skref”, the song she performed in the earlier national semi-final.
I know, I know, I’m out of my head but I think this could go places. There’s a genuine niceness to it which I find very appealing, Maria is very Selma (or she might just be very generic Icelandic, in fairness). Struggling a little to leave golden footprints, which is in itself rather charming. It’s just… nice. In a nice way.
That should be in an envelope come Thursday. Possibly the tenth one to be opened, mayhap.
Archive note: At the time of writing, Iceland had not yet performed in Vienna: the second semi-final was still ahead on Thursday 21 May. Ólafsdóttir eventually performed 12th, but “Unbroken” finished 15th of 17 entries with 14 points and did not qualify for the grand final. So much for my envelope.
