- Icelandic Dadi Freyr and his group were among the favorites to win Eurovision 2020 in May in Rotterdam (Netherlands). However, the competition was canceled due to the health crisis.
- Consolation: his song, "Think About Things", was a phenomenon on social networks.
- "20 Minutes" met the singer during his visit to Paris at the end of June.
He leaves the elevator, his long cascading blonde hair still soaked from his morning shower. From almost 2.10 meters high, he sweeps his wide blue eyes into the hall of the Hôtel Noir (Paris 17th) where we find him this Wednesday in late June. His casual attire confirms that he is not there to play international stars with glossy attitudes. Dadi Freyr * is, in reality, perfectly in line with the idea that we had before meeting him: that of a big stump - nothing pejorative in this term - cool, which does not take itself seriously , and that we could easily imagine joining our friendly circle.
The general public does not necessarily know Dadi Freyr by name, but rather as "the Icelandic of Eurovision". The 28-year-old artist should have represented his country in May in Rotterdam (Netherlands) before the event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. For many fans and observers, he is the “unofficial” winner of this edition which never took place. He is above all the candidate who made the most talk about him.
His song, Think About Things , went around the world at the end of February. “I couldn't explain why the song aroused so much enthusiasm before we even won the Icelandic selection for Eurovision. I did nothing to make it take on such a scale, he says. The clip was posted, a German host tweeted it, and that's when it started to take off. "
"Even Russell Crowe shared the clip"
In the video in question, Dadi Freyr and his acolytes, all dressed in a green sweater with their pixelated portrait, perform their choreography with dangling arms and no lazy side, in the living room of a lambda family slightly tense. The melody, a little funk, a little electro, enters the head without difficulty. Result: three minutes of relaxed, second-degree fun that can be listened to in the first degree, which crossed borders.
"Even Russell Crowe shared it from a Dutch site, it was surreal," added the singer, incredulous. Five months after its publication on YouTube, the clip has been viewed more than 13 million times. In the meantime, on Tik Tok, hundreds of thousands of videos, in which we can see groups of friends, families and other messy bands jiggling to the rhythm of the song have been posted, garnering tens of millions of views . Actress Jennifer Garner lent herself to the game, sharing the result with her subscribers on social networks.
“It's touching to see people from all over the world having fun on Think About Things , I thought it would affect Icelanders, Europeans if need be, but I never imagined that it would reach the American, Asian or African ”, rejoices the singer modestly, visibly overwhelmed by the phenomenon. The most unexpected? “Let the title be remixed by Hot Chips. It's one of my favorite bands. I would never have dared to dream about it, ”he marvels.
🇮🇸 🚨 Think About Things by @dadimakesmusic is the first Eurovision song to chart in the UK Top 40 in five years.
Largely down to it going viral online- like in the video below that's had nearly 10m views on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/94CQrdhnUe
Dadi Freyr explains that things happen without trying to provoke them. The story of his journey provides proof. Music was certainly one of his predispositions. His parents met in a marching band: his father played the drum, his mother the flute. His musical initiation thus started very early. “I started playing the drum quite young but I took my first lessons at the age of 6. When I was 9, I started playing the piano, then, at 14, on bass and on the guitar, ”he lists.
"I had no particular ambition"
Not enough to imagine a career in the spotlight. Moreover, its first participation, in 2017, in Söngvakeppnin, the telecrochet acting as Icelandic selection for Eurovision, owes much to chance. “I had no particular ambition. I wrote a song Is This Love? that one of my friends had to interpret for this contest. But, three weeks before the show, he told me that he was no longer interested in it, so I had to go there myself and, as there can be up to six on stage, I invited five people to accompany me, ”says Dadi Freyr. At the time, his hair was a little shorter, but the emblematic green sweatshirt was already there, as well as the normcore nonchalance . The small team finished in second place, a result he would not have expected a month earlier. “It was a turning point for me, it allowed me to live full time as a musician. This participation changed everything for me, ”insists the man who has lived in Berlin (Germany) for a few years.
At the beginning of 2020, he decided to try his luck again, surrounded by his wife, his sister and four friends, in other words the group Gagnamagnidh created for the occasion. "I wanted to see how far we could go," says the singer. Winning the Eurovision would have been something to tick in the bucket list ”, the list of things to accomplish in one's life. The project seemed to be going well - the troop triumphed in Söngvakeppnin with Think About Things and Iceland immediately found itself in the position of great favorite - but the Covid-19 pandemic prevented its completion.
Dadi Freyr learned of the Eurovision cancellation on March 18 on Twitter and accused the coup. “I was disappointed not to have the opportunity to go to Rotterdam with my friends and have the crazy experience that Eurovision is supposed to be. But my song had already received more attention than I would have hoped ”, he comforts himself, philosopher.
"I think we would have had a good result at Eurovision"
He claims to have no regrets, not to have the feeling of having been deprived of a victory. "I think we would have done a good result," he concedes, hastening to specify that other candidates could have made a stronger impression. Eurovision, for me, is not just the song, it's also everything around: the staging, the outfits, the lighting, the screens, etc. So I'm not sure what our outcome could have been ... ”
Dadi Freyr is ready to defend Iceland's chances again at Eurovision 2021. He warns: “The ball is in the court of [the chain] RUV. If they want us to go, we're ready. But we don't want to go through a new selection. »It is therefore out of the question to leave the telecrochet box.
"I don't feel like I have to make a new hit"
Anyway, the Icelandic artist intends to take advantage of the visibility that his song offered him. He plans to release an EP by the fall, then an album next year. "I don't feel pressure, I don't feel like I have to make a new hit at all costs," he slips. I hope my next songs won't always be compared to Think About Things , but I know it could happen. "However, he does not consider his piece phenomenon as a burden and he is well aware that it is thanks to him that he is" there ", in Paris, to promote in the middle of June.
He will return to the French capital in December, for a concert at the Label Pop Up (Paris 12th), one of the dates of his European tour which will pass among others the United Kingdom, Belgium, Sweden and Germany . A prospect who excites him - "I can't wait to meet the public, to feel the different energies" - and who will conclude his year with a completely unexpected scenario. In its own way, it will have brought a few moments of lightness, humor and good humor to a year 2020 which will have been globally devoid of it.
(*) In Icelandic, the name of the artist is spelled Daði. In accordance with the 20 Minutes charter , this article does not show the special characters unknown to the French language. If the conventional transliteration wants the character "ð" to be transposed into "dh", it was decided to materialize it by a "d", as did the vast majority of international media.
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Who would Dadi Freyr have voted for Eurovision 2020? "My favorite song was that of Australia [ Don't Break Me by Montaigne]," he replies. I also really like On Fire from the Lithuanian group The Roop and I'm a huge fan of the Russian group Little Big. I was very excited to see what they were going to do on stage and I would have liked to meet them. "
- Music
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- Eurovision
- Iceland
- Culture