Three stories from the music news desk at Grapevine Towers…
Laufey
Jazz wunderkind Laufey Lin—who established an enviable international profile on social media through posting home performance videos during lockdown—played on American TV show ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ last month.
The appearance was a big step into the US market for the Icelandic singer-songwriter, who released her debut album, ‘Typical of Me’, last year. And kudos to Mr. Kimmel, who pronounced Laufey’s name flawlessly.
Laufey also played for the Grapevine at last November’s Live From Reykjavík festival, video of which you can see above. VG
Bríet
Beyond a doubt, Bríet is the hardest working singer in Icelandic show biz. She came into the music scene like a wrecking ball about two years ago, claiming the pop throne and becoming The Grapevine’s Artist Of The Year 2021.
Now, Bríet has released a new song, “Cold Feet”. It’s actually a three-year-old composition and, as she told Icelandic music site, Albumm.is, she had planned on releasing it sooner but it was too tied to her broken heart.
But the song is only half of it. The video has received a lot of attention in Icelandic media, as it features Bríet in a glass box in the middle of the Icelandic wilderness which is slowly filling up with water. That’s one way to deal with a broken heart, I guess. VG
Nei Nei – There Will Be No Ding Dong
Trolls—the sad ones hiding behind computer screens, not the cunning cannibals of Icelandic lore—cruelly raised the hopes of Eurovision-loving Icelanders recently. It seemed that the one and only Will Ferrell had asked Twitter if he could compete for Iceland in Eurovision in 2022, a competition that Icelanders take unashamedly seriously.
Some Icelandic media fell for it, reporting on the trolling tweet as if it had a basis in reality. There were red faces all round when it was pointed out that this was the handiwork of a somewhat infamous troll.
Well, let’s cut them some slack. Mr. Ferrell’s ‘Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga’ is a cult hit film over here, and those hapless journalists were probably too busy singing “Jaja Ding Dong” to do any fact checking.
But if the offer had been real, Will Ferrel would have been to Iceland what Canadian superstar Celine Dion was to Switzerland when she won Eurovision for them in 1988. Not that we know anything about Eurovision. VG
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