Iceland's Secret Eurovision Weapon

From today's Iceland Review:

27/03/2009 | 11:55

Iceland Reveals Secret Eurovision Weapon

The secret is out! Russian singer-songwriter Tinatin Japaridze co-wrote Iceland’s contribution to this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, the ballad “Is it True?” performed by Icelandic singer Jóhanna Gudrún Jónsdóttir.

“We tried to keep it secret because we wanted people to value the song for what it is but not vote for it because of political interests,” Japaridze told Fréttabladid.

Japaridze is currently translating parts of the lyrics into Russian to promote it in her home country. She is very pleased with Jónsdóttir’s rendition of it and is confident that she will deliver a grand performance in Moscow.

Click here to read more about Iceland’s Eurovision contribution and here to watch Jónsdóttir perform “Is it True?”

"Is It True?" - PRAVDA?

A special feature article on "Is It True", Iceland's Eurovision entry 2009 was published in today's issue of the Ukrainian edition of Komsomolskaya Pravda... Does anyone remember the "Pravda" anecdotes during the communist times? :-) It's still one of the leading post-USSR newspapers today, it really is!

Ironically, "pravda" translated from Russian means "true"... if you also add a question mark to "pravda?" it can be interpreted as "is it true?"

And so it's true... Have a look for yourselves!

Eurovision Gamble Begins!

Still very early days to speculate about the results of the semifinals in Moscow on May 12 & 14 followed by the actual grand finale two days later, however, an interesting non-Icelandic review written by Spain's Rodrigo Romero has been circulating through the internet over the last few days...........




"Iceland has secured a place in the final"

Posted by Rodrigo Romero

EurovisionFamily.tv

In the first super Saturday, when no less than five songs were chosen to fly to Moscow, it was no surprise to see Iceland pick Is it true to represent them in May. Everything works perfectly with this entry, the lyrics are simple, but really beautiful, Johanna is simply lovely, the tune is quite catchy, and one that is easy to keep humming after listening to it once, the voice is sweet but at the same time powerful, the live performance was flawless... it all ads up to the conclusion that there was no better choice to have made, and that Iceland is, I think, beginning to stand out as a real contender to win the whole thing.

One thing is sure: they have secured a spot in the final. There is no way they can be left out; on the one hand, they have televote to rely on; on the other hand, if Johanna doesn't pull it off with televote (and then European public can seriously be locked in a mental health home), she has the jury vote to back her up. Having had the luck to be drawn to a semifinal which still has to produce an impressive song (and a marvelous ballad, which is better than this), it's difficult to see this one blown away; the only real excellent songs so far there are Andorra's and Montenegro's; Finland's, Malta's and Turkey's are ok; Romania's is nothing special, and Armenia's and Belarus' are terrible.

And then, let's not forget that the final will see a 50-50 split between televote and jury vote, and this song is the exact kind that the latter wouldn't doubt to support. So, still expecting for 20 songs to be either presented or chosen, I'd be brave enough to say that it's not too crazy to think about a Reykjavik 2010.

What's True and What Isn't?

Over the past week since the Eurovision finals in Iceland, we've witnessed quite a stir in the media about "who wrote the 2009 Icelandic entry?" ("Is It True")

The overall confusion started when the RUV channel that was broadcasting the national finals, initially included only the Icelandic co-writer's name (Oskar Pall Sveinsson) in the TV show credits. But in the follow-up broadcasts, the show's hosts repeatedly announced the three writers individually.

At first it all seemed too trivial, and quite frankly, nobody was too bothered since we were all too busy speculating about the outcome of the competition.

On February 14th, "Is It True" finally won in the national selection process (44%!) and we're officially taking the song to Moscow in mid-May!

What we weren't expecting, however, was the interest that the co-writer situation has sparked among Eurovision fans and the European media.

There was one particular article that caught my eye... have a look.

A few other press articles followed, including German, Russian and Belarusian media outlets.

A lot of these sources are accurate, with a couple of interesting suggestions ("Tinatin is an American singer with Georgian roots and an impressive track record as a songwriter in Iceland"....REALLY??? I didn't know that!!!)

One of the Eurovision Forums in Russian was a real joy to follow - so entertaining! Ranging from Icelandic-entry lovers to those who simply "don't get it", the members of the forum have also tracked down the original demo and they were enthusiastically comparing the two versions and trying to figure out if I wrote the song or just appeared on the demo as a session singer, or maybe at the last minute I had decided to perform the song myself at ESC 2009? VERY COMPLICATED!!!

But I assure you, it's all very simple: "Is It True" was written by Oskar Pall Sveinsson, Christopher Neil and yours truly; the song will be performed in Moscow (just like during the pre-selection in Reykjavik) by the wonderful Johanna; it will not be translated into Icelandic, as some have suggested and/or predicted - and finally, the semifinals (day 1) will be held at Moscow's Olympiyskiy Stadium on May 12th followed by the finals on May 16th, so do make sure you cast your votes during the semifinals accordingly :-)

And one more thing: this exclusive interview was featured in the weekend issue of Novoye Russkoye Slovo, the leading Russian newspaper in America, also published in Russia, Ukraine, Israel and the worldwide web!

P.S. Here are the preliminary charts on the Eurovision website -- the poll results will be updated every Monday based on the fans and potential televoters preferences, so feel free to vote for your favorite (or your least favorite) song by following the link

P.S.s. A little something to make you all... smile :-) a big fan of the song, apparently!