Iceland 2022: Systur with ‘Með Hækkandi Sól’

Following on from Sweden and just before Portugal in the selection order this year, we have another quite mellow female number supplied by Iceland :

Songvakeppnin is not something I spent much time but this is alright. The melody, production and harmonies all work well together here but there's a real lack of story telling. The Icelandic works fine but 99.99% of voters will not know what this is about which is a big negative for a genre that is at its best when helped with strong lyrics. Other songs can get away with or are helped by the native language, despite it differentiating it, this might be one of the times not going in English has an overall negative effect and skews the balance off.

The fact this is just three women stud there strumming the guitar for three minutes creates a nice vibe but doesn't really draw me in and doesn't leave them much room for improvement with audience connection.

There's a real danger this slips through the cracks with those issues and I worry about qualification. Being in the second half and having some Nordic support keeps them in the mix for now but competing entries from Portugal and Croatia don't help the cause. Juries will respect the musicianship, but I don't think they benefit from a big push so have to be more out than in.

Personal Rating: 7/10

Competitve Rating: 4/10

Early Prediction: Semi 1 10th- 14th, 19th- 23rd if in the final.