News - Iceland: Sjonni Brink speaks to esctoday.com | Eurovision Song Contest News - Azerbaijan 2012 

In anticipation of the final of Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 2010, Iceland's pre-selection to determine the country's representative at the Eurovision Song Contest, esctoday.com will be providing you with interviews of all six participants competing for the honour of representing Iceland in Oslo. The national final will be held this Saturday, February 6th and our series of interviews continues with Sjonni Brink. Find out what he had to say below.

First of all, congratulations on qualifying to the final of Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and the musical projects you are involved with.
 
Thank you. To tell you a bit about myself, I’m a singer and musician and work as such fulltime. I have recently released a solo album here in Iceland and I’m in a rock band called Rokk. When I’m not working, I love going horseback riding and all kinds of sports and of course spending time with my family.

You were one of the two qualifiers in the third semi final of Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins. Did it come as a surprise to you, or were you expecting to go through?

Yes and no. Of course you always hope that your song will be liked by the public, but Eurovision is a tricky competition and it’s sometimes hard to tell what people will go for.  I’m very proud of this song and I think it could do well in the final because it’s different and a jolly song.

Your song Waterslide is a guitar-, and banjo- dominated, very acoustic kind of song. An easy listening tune suitable for dreaming away. Was that the sentiment you wanted to capture with this song? What message does it convey?

Yes, that’s exactly what I wanted to capture, you’re very good!  It was quite special, when I wrote this song it came to me all at once. I sat down and started singing and playing the guitar and somehow it was just all there in about 3 minutes.  That doesn’t happen very often.

Your performance in the semi final was equally laid-back as the song itself, with you and your company playing the instruments appearing barefoot and staying seated throughout the entire performance. Will you be delivering a similar performance on Saturday or are there any changes to be made for the final performance?

That remains to be seen, I think we’ll keep it a secret for now.  You never know we might perform it in swimming trunks alone :) Just to mention it, we’ve all had pedicures now so we’re ready for Saturday.

The Eurovision Song Contest is extremely popular in Iceland, especially after Yohanna’s sensational second place at the 2009 edition. How much of a fan are you personally and what does the contest mean to you?

Eurovision has always been very popular here in Iceland, I think it’s because of the fact that Icelanders are very competitive.  For me personally you couldn’t call me a Eurovision fanatic but I enjoy watching it and as a musician it’s a good place to present your songs and yourself. 

Back to the national final to be held on Saturday: In your opinion, how big are your chances of winning and who do you see as your main competitor for victory?

I think all the songs on Saturday are particularly strong so I don’t think any song stands out.  The songs are all very different, no two songs are even similar in style so I think everyone can find a song that they like so I have no idea who’s going to win.  Of course I think we should win though!

Which song of the other Icelandic national finalists do you like the most and why?

Of course I like my own song the most :)  But actually my favorite from this year’s competition didn’t make it to the final and that was Ég gefst ekki upp, sung by Menn ársins.  I think that’s a great song. 

What would it mean to you to represent Iceland at the Eurovision Song Contest?

It would mean a lot to me, I have wonderful musicians and singers in the act with me and I know that we would be great representatives for Iceland.  We’re all very used to performing with each other and we’re all best friends so I know that there would never be a dull moment around us, we’re always playing music and laughing.

After Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins, what are your future (musical) plans?

I’m just going to keep on writing music and performing :)

To come to the conclusion, what message would you like to give to the readers of esctoday.com?

Peace :) I have learnt after the competition that when you make the peace sign with your fingers it’s supposed to be the other way around, I never knew that! We found that quite funny actually, sorry all Brits, it won’t happen again :)

Esctoday.com would like to thank Sjonni Brink for taking the time to this interview and wish him the best of luck for the Icelandic national final on Saturday.

Interview with Icelandic broadcaster RUV:

Sjonni's bid for Eurovision, Waterslide:

Live performance of Waterslide at the third semi final of Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins:

Flökkuhjartað