Published January 11, 2026

Celebrating our previous cover person

We simply don’t have a person-of-the-year category. Our colleagues at RÚV English generously hosted the Grapevine and asked us about our editing process for Best of Reykjavik, the sister publication to the Reykjavík Grapevine. The interview was pleasant. 

It was only later that I realised I compared our editorial process to the Russian Revolution while we were recording. I probably shouldn’t have said that into a microphone. 

I repeatedly think about the classic Soviet arguments during the revolution as we in the office spiral out of control debating ice cream. (Spoiler: My favourite ice cream stand did not win.) Given how close we came to spilling blood over best bar, a person-of-the-year-discussion would likely veer from Reds into a 28 Days Later sequel. 

Because we as a staff agree on so very little, I believe we generate a varied magazine. But we don’t get to do things like name a person of the year. Páll Óskar, who was featured in our September 2025 issue with Benni Hemm Hemm, who sings Rás 2’s pop song of the year, “Eitt af blómunum,” and who opened the year, before dominating the pop charts, by defending immigrants at public No Borders Iceland protests, and who then led, as he often does, the Pride festivities, and then, as a formal Eurovision contestant, put his entire reputation on the line to stop RÚV from participating in the Eurovision Song Contest, was so remarkable, I almost cleared our schedule to have a vote. 

Then the United States invaded Venezuela. The repeated threats to Greenland made their rounds, and we had to respond to the events of the day. 

A visiting artist wrote lyrics that describe the malaise brought on by American imperialism, as experienced by uneasy Americans, in a droning poem expressed as a voicemail to her parents: “Here come the planes/ They’re American planes, Made in America/ Smoking or non-smoking.” Her haunting song “O Superman” perfectly encapsulates the panic attack of our time, and of course it was written in 1982. 

In this issue, you’ll see a surprisingly candid discussion with Paweł Bartoszek, the Icelandic Chairman of Foreign Affairs, about where Iceland stands in the era of the “Donroe Doctrine.” You will separately possibly discover a few other artists who are making an enormous impact. And you will likely flip to the interview with Laurie Anderson, the artist quoted above. 

In a different timeline, though, we’d have had that vote, and I somehow would have convinced my colleagues to dedicate some authoritative statement to Páll Óskar. In light of the uncertainty and struggles that seem on the horizon, celebrating the courage and fortitude of a man who has challenged hatred and bigotry for an entire career and managed to change minds using talent, chord structure, and open communication, feels like a way to find a stable ground.