Iceland promising a performance viewers will never forget

With Gréta and Jónsi backstage

Backstage with Eurovision.tv Jónsi led us to believe that what we will see today may not be quite the finished article, adding "The costumes you see today are almost what we will wear on the Semi Final night."

The LED backdrop came in for particular praise from the press after the first rehearsal. Of this Jónsi remarked "I think it's really good, you know that we can always ask for something, but the inspiration for this backdrop was really from our official video and we're very happy with it."

Gréta also agreed that the set looked amazing for the performance. She plays the violin as well as singing during the song, when asked about which role she preferred she added "I don't actually prefer one or the other, the mixture of singing and playing the violin, like you see during the act on stage would be my first choice."

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All in black on stage

Once again, the performance is impressive. Gréta & Jónsi sang very well and are totally confident in each other. It seems like they are an accomplished double act who have been performing as a duo for many years, rather than this being their first project together.

The setting of the LED backdrop is that of a snowy mountainous glacial landscape, firstly at night time as Jónsi opens. As the first chorus arrives, the backdrop becomes that of day breaking. At certain points, it appears that the Northern Lights are ripping through the sky. 

They are joined by two male and two female backing vocalists, and the whole team are dressed in black. Gréta's dress has a long train that requires assistance from another delegation member as she walks off stage.

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Musical treats at press conference

There was another familiar face from Iceland at their press conference, Fridrik Omar was the male half of Euroband who represented Iceland in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, and was looking after PR and press for Iceland this year as he is a close friend of Gréta Salóme & Jónsi 

When asked about how the collaboration of Never Forget was born, Jónsi said "Gréta sent me an email asking if i'd like to sing a duet with her, I thought it was a beautiful song and I wanted to sing it with her. It was after this that she asked me if I wanted to send it to Eurovision." 

Another journalist was interested to hear what Jónsi had been doing since participating in Europe's Favourite TV Show in 2004, he replied "I've been acting, recorded a few albums, some TV host, and had my second son and i'm now studying psychology too. I'm a bit more experienced now than in 2004."

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Gréta then played a solo on the violin, backed by piano for the enjoyment of the press. It went down a storm, and had the whole press conference room clapping along enthusiastically.

The press were treated to another surprise when Jónsi gave a rendition of his Icelandic entry from 2004 Heaven, accompanied by guitar and piano. Following that he also sang the 1991 Icelandic entry Nina together with Gréta and the rest of the musicians on the team. 

Gréta and Jónsi spoke exclusively to Eurovision.tv just prior to leaving for Baku, you can see the interview in full in the video below.

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