Iceland's Pre-Contest Favourite Fails to Qualify

MAY 15 2016 · 12:05

Greta Salóme · "Hear Them Calling" · Iceland · 2016 Placement: 14 · Score: 51 · Language: English · Composers: Greta Salóme Stefánsdóttir · Venue: Ericsson Globe · Host: Stockholm, Sweden · Type: upset · Broadcast: streaming era Greta Salóme — Icelandic classical violinist turned pop singer, returning four years after her 2012 Iceland entry — takes the Ericsson Globe stage for the first semi-final. 'Hear Them Calling' is dark art-pop with gothic staging featuring shadowy doubles. Bookmakers had Iceland as a semi-final qualifier lock. She finishes 14th of 18 and fails to advance. The Icelandic music press calls it 'one of the worst Eurovision evenings in RÚV memory'. Context Greta Salóme had attended the Iceland Academy of the Arts and performed with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. She had co-wrote and produced 'Hear Them Calling' herself. Her 2012 entry had been a duet with Jónsi finishing 20th in the grand final. The 2016 elimination was a sharp cultural setback for RÚV. Legacy Greta Salóme continued a successful international cruise-ship residency career through the 2020s. 'Hear Them Calling' won the 2020 #EurovisionAgain retrospective fan vote as 'best song eliminated from its semi-final' — a retrospective vindication. Iceland's Eurovision trajectory dipped into the Hatari 2019 and Daði 2020-2021 era partly as reaction to the 2016 failure.