A Song About Not Bullying, Staged Against Other Laws

MAY 15 2014 · 12:20

Pollapönk · "No Prejudice (Enga fordóma)" · Iceland · 2014 Placement: 15th · Score: 61 · Language: English · Composers: Haraldur F. Gíslason, Heiðar Örn Kristjánsson, John Grant · Venue: B&W Hallerne · Host: Copenhagen, Denmark · Type: political statement · Broadcast: HD On the night of 10 May 2014, at Copenhagen's converted shipyard venue B&W Hallerne, four middle-aged Icelandic men in cartoonishly bright suits — primary-colour polyester, electric guitars, children's-television showmanship — performed a song whose premise was almost aggressively simple: do not bully people. Pollapönk had begun as an actual children's music act in Iceland; 'Enga fordóma,' translated into English as 'No Prejudice' with American singer-songwriter John Grant on the co-write, was the kind of Eurovision entry that looked superficially like comic relief and functioned as something much more pointed. 2014 was the year Russia's 'gay propaganda' law had entered its second year of global controversy, and Eurovision that spring had become a deliberate staging ground. Iceland had reportedly spent weeks debating whether to formalize Pollapönk's anti-prejudice message as political statement or leave it implicit. In the end the band wore rainbow pins and delivered the song straight, leaning on the lyric rather than the context. Conchita Wurst's subsequent win that same week sharpened the political frame — a victory for queer Europe performed on the same stage as an anti-bullying anthem from Reykjavík. Pollapönk finished 15th with 61 points. The placement is not what the song is remembered for. Context The 2014 contest had been held in Copenhagen's B&W Hallerne after Denmark's 2013 win with Emmelie de Forest. The venue's shipyard-to-arena conversion was troubled; the contest itself was defined by Russia's anti-LGBT legislation and the widespread audience booing directed at the Tolmachevy Sisters. Iceland's delegation arrived having already flagged 'Enga fordóma' as a statement entry: the song had been translated into English specifically to travel, and the band's public interviews throughout Eurovision week referenced the Russian law, even when prompted with different questions. John Grant's involvement as co-writer was itself a small story — an American expatriate living in Reykjavík, openly HIV-positive, who had made Iceland his home. Legacy Pollapönk returned to being a children's-music act in Iceland after the contest — they were never positioned to pivot to pop careers on the strength of 15th place. But the song became one of the most-cited examples in Eurovision academic literature of how the contest's no-politics rule is negotiated in practice: a song can be political in intention, legible in reception, and rule-compliant on its surface. 'Enga fordóma' is still a reference point for RÚV's internal conversations about Iceland's Eurovision approach. John Grant has continued to be an occasional collaborator with Icelandic artists. Mythology Pollapönk are often remembered as explicitly anti-Russia rather than explicitly anti-bullying; the song itself never references Russia, and the band has in interviews been careful to keep the message universal. The song is also often remembered as the Icelandic-language version; the Eurovision performance was in English. And the 15th-place finish surprises people who remember the band as a fan favorite — the fan affection was real but never converted to televote points.