Oscars go to Iceland with pre-show performance of Eurovision song 'Húsavík'
One of the most special stories to come out of this Oscars season hails from a small town called Húsavík.
The Academy Awards pre-show on kicked off Sunday with a performance of "Húsavík," the Oscar-nominated song from the film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. The piece was performed by Molly Sandén, the singer who provided some of the vocals for Rachel McAdams' character in the movie, alongside a choir of children from the actual town of Húsavík, Iceland.
The film stars McAdams and Will Ferrell as the two members of Fire Saga, a fictional musical duo from Húsavík with high hopes of winning the Eurovision Song Contest. Since the film premiered on Netflix in June 2020, residents of Húsavík have given their thanks to the global attention brought their way by the movie. In response, they launched their own Oscars campaign to help Eurovision win the Best Original Song category.
The campaign includes original promos, featuring the "Jaja Ding Dong" guy, actor Hannes óli ágústsson, the man who demands Fire Saga perform the bar song "Jaja Ding Dong" during the course of the movie. It also includes a website with many jewels to discover.
Another facet is Sunday's performance. Children from the town performed the song "Húsavík" as accompaniment to Sandén.
The film's director David Dobkin previously told EW that McAdams very much performed some of the music for Eurovision, but Sandén stepped in when it came to the more vocally challenging moments.
"The two hardest songs were 'Húsavík' and 'Jaja Ding Dong.' For some reason, they took a little while to nail down," he had said. "Where's the melody? Where's the hook? 'Húsavík' was something where we heard a hook to it in a demo, but it took a lot of work to where a lot of the song was re-written around that hook, the chorus. It was a very interesting process."
Related content: