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.
I’ve been sitting here thinking, great set, gorgeous set. Mountains. A rocky floor with glimpses of lava through the cracks below. Northern lights floating around the icy frozen sky. What a shame María Ólafsdóttir’s voice sounds like it belongs on the soundtrack of a Disney movie or something.
What a waste of a beautiful stage that looks like it could come out of a Disney movie, to dress it up like some Disney princess and put it with a simple song that could come out of a Disney movie.
Then I slapped myself, quite theatrically, around the head and had the biggest “duh” moment of my life. Umm, yes, that is kind of the point Nick, well done for spotting the most ubiquitous cultural reference of 2014, yes indeed well done you.
To identify the entry properly: this was Iceland’s Eurovision 2015 song, “Unbroken”, performed by María Ólafs — María Ólafsdóttir — after she won Iceland’s Söngvakeppnin national final with the Icelandic version, “Lítil skref”. At the time of writing, Iceland had not yet performed in Vienna; the song was due to appear fifteenth in the second semi-final on 21 May.
The staging really did lean into the imagery: Northern Lights and shooting stars on the LED screens, with a floor effect resembling molten lava or glowing gold. María wore a champagne-rose tutu-style dress with gold detailing, while five backing vocalists joined her, including Hera Björk and Ásgeir Orri Ásgeirsson, one of the song’s writers. The Disney-princess comparison was not entirely mine alone, either: contemporary commentary also noticed the pop-princess, film-soundtrack quality. I still reserve the right to be sarcastic about it.
Kids who enjoy Disney movies also enjoy saying PLEEEEEASE CAN I VOTE FOR THE PRINCESS? PLEEEAASSSSSSSSSSSE?????????? There’s your target demographic.
And if it doesn’t win here (spoiler – it won’t WIN, no) there’s a home for it on the soundtrack of Frozen 3 without a doubt.
Retrospective note: Iceland ultimately finished 15th in the second semi-final and did not qualify. But on 14 May 2015, that was still Nick’s prediction rather than a known result.
