President Jóhannesson sings: „Eurovision is a travelling circus with a huge tent“

The American tel­evision news show 60 Minutes recently publ­is­hed a seg­ment on Iceland’s Eurovision craze. A crew and an anchor from this big­gest news show in the world came to Iceland last March to observe „Söngvakeppnin“, the country’s prelimin­ary competition before the main Eurovision Song Contest in Europe.

„Eurovision is a tra­vell­ing circus with a huge tent and you just have to see it to beli­eve it,“ the news anchor expla­ins to American viewers. In the seg­ment there is a part of an interview with Rúnar Freyr Gíslason, the mana­ger of Söngvakeppnin, who says that Eurovision does indeed make Icelanders feel like they are a part of Europe.

Among those interviewed on the show is Guðni Th. Jóhann­es­son, the pres­ident of Iceland. The show feat­ures Jóhann­es­son break­ing out in song at one point. A part of the show can be watched below.

In the interview, pres­ident Jóhann­es­son is asked to explain what Eurovision means to Icelanders. „We are a small nation,“ Jóhann­es­son says and expla­ins that Icelanders want to feel that they are able to compete with big­ger nations on the national stage.

Dave Goodman, Communications Lead for the Eurovision Song Contest, claims that the „secret behind the competition is to connect with the audience. For example a song like the Icelandic one this year could do well because it has this connection.“

Pres­ident Jóhann­es­son is asked what percentage of Icelanders watch the competition.

„In 2019 98,4 % of the population were watching and the other 1,6 percent were probably asleep after a difficult day at work or somet­hing.“ In the show it is mentioned that Jóhann­es­son is a histor­ian and as such rem­em­bers some acts in the Eurovision Song Contest quite well. „I can easily rem­em­ber some of the past winners. Sandra Kim in ’86, Brotherhood of Man, „Save Your Kisses for Me“ in ’76 if I rem­em­ber it correctly.“

Jon Wertheim, 60 Minutes journalist and anchor then asks pres­ident Jóhann­es­son whether he is willing to sing for him. Jóhann­es­son laughs.

„I sing in the bath, I sing in the shower. Am I now supp­osed to sing on 60 Minutes?“ the pres­ident asks, before break­ing into song, per­form­ing Save All Your Kisses for Me.

This article was orig­inally publ­is­hed in Icelandic by Salome Frið­geirs­dóttir.