Iceland singing in the ice

The first rehearsal

Iceland just made their first rehearsal for this year's Eurovision Song Contest at the stage in the Baku Crystal Hall. You can check it out in the following video:

As far as we witnessed backstage there's chemistry between the two performers, and that also showed off on their rehearsal performances. Their four backing singers, all dressed in black, give a lot of power to Never Forget, matching the dramatic arrangement of the song. You can also check out our gallery from the rehearsal:

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Backstage

Before their rehearsal we found the Icelandic performers, Greta Salome and Jonsi backstage while getting their voices ready. "So far so good", said Jonsi.

Then we took the pictures you can see in the gallery below; "it's not an easy dress to move around" confessed Jonsi while moving around Greta Salome's big dress.

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Press conference

Jonsi, already performed at the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest Final in Istanbul and thinks that Eurovision has grown since 2004: "It is a bigger event but it is as nerve wracking as it was in 2004".

Their collaboration started with an e-mail that Greta sent to Jonsi to offer him singing the duet with her. "It was a beautiful song and I just decided to sing it. She also asked if we would send it to the Icelandic national selection, and I also said yes", Jonsi explains. "So it was me who found him" Greta says.

 We had a good response to Never Forget... it is so much more than we expected, to have all these people who believe in what we are doing

 

Greta Salome performs her own composition not only with her voice but with her violin: "There's a huge violin arrangement and also a solo in the bridge. Me being a violinist of course influences my writing, and this background of mine makes it more symphonic sounding, but with a pop twist, of course".

Jonsi has two sons and they have their own favourite at this year's contest: "They love the Russian song, they watch it all the time on YouTube and they've asked for me to take a picture with them".

Greta Salome told that the designer of her dress is also the director of the act: "we used the traditional Icelandic cotumes in a modern way and I also had to feel comfortable wearing it on a stage. It is similar to the one I had in Iceland, we just took that one a bit further judging from the great reaction that we had after the original dress".

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They switched the language of the song since winning the Icelandic final "we have a story to tell and I wanted people to understand what we are saying, that the message of the song comes across. I personally believe that the song is better in English in this setting, plus the Icelandic version still exists, if people want to listen to that song, they can"! expressed Greta Salome.

After some journalists asked them about the change of weather between Iceland and Azerbaijan Greta said that "I used to live in Florida, so this is where I belong"!