A week and a half have passed since Greta Salóme and Jónsi won the Icelandic ticket to Baku with the lovely song "Mundu eftir mér", written by Greta herself. Many things, both good and not so good have happened since then, and today escNorge sat down with Greta to find out how the days since the victory have been for her.  

Wiv; So, again; Congratulations on you victory!! What a night that was!!

Greta; Thanks! Yeah, it was one of the best nights in my life! And it is finally sinking in now. On the night it was a bit too much to take in.

Wiv; I can imagine! But much has happened in Iceland since last Saturday. Let's start with "the jury thing". There has been some writing and complaining about the voting method after you won. 

Greta; Yes, there has been a bit of a stir about that. And I don't understand why. All the songwriters and contestants in Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins knew from the start that the jury would have a 50% say in the final, as they did in the semi finals. This was said over and over again, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone, especially not the contestants. If people had different opinions about this way of doing it, they should have said so before the contest, not after. You enter a competition with certain rules, and the rules can't be changed simply because someone don't like the results. It's simple really. There is a small, but sadly loud, group that has protested this arrangement after the result was known. 

Wiv; What do you personally think of this year's changes in the voting method? This is the first year the winner of Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins has not been chosen by the people alone.

Greta; Well...In my opinion having a jury is a guarantee that anyone can enter a song and have a shot at winning. It ensures that we choose a song and not the most popular performer. This way we also have the same method of voting here as in the big Eurovision final. Having a jury makes the competition more fair.

Wiv; RÚV has published both the televoting numbers and the jury decision, and you were the unanious winners of the jury, ahead of "Hugarró" and "Stattu upp". The difference in the televoting was minimal; only a matter of 700 votes separated numeber one, "Stattu upp" and your song. So it was simple maths, really; The jury gave you 12 points, the people gave you 10. The runner-up, "Stattu upp" got 12 points from the people and 8 from the jury. This equals 22 points for you and 20 for the second place. Are you satisfied that you have the support of the Icelandic people when you go to Baku in May? 

Greta; We are all happy about the results. We believe in the song and as far as we can tell, so does the majority of the people here. The whole group has worked really hard to perform the song as well as possible. The most important thing now is that this issue isn't allowed to change a thing, and we will continue to work hard on making our nation proud.

Wiv; It's all really crazy, but I have to ask you; What is your reaction to the accusations from some people on the web site "Ny Tónlist" (New Music) about you having "stolen" your song? They claim it is very similar to another Icelandic song, "Álfakóngurinn" by Heimir Sindrason.

Greta; Well, as soon as this news was published from "Ny Tónlist, which is a small underground website here in Iceland, the songwriter of the alleged "original" called me and we had a good laugh about it. He didn't even know which of his song they could be talking about. The two songs are nothing alike and the news didn't even last the day.

Wiv; Rumour has it that the site is run by three young men who supposedly are friends with some of the boys in Blár Ópal? 

Greta; I have heard those rumours too, but I'm sure no one in the Blár Ópal-team has anything to do with the accusations. Perhaps the boys who run the web site wanted to help their friends by trying to discredit our song? This is not an issue I want to spend more time on no matter what, I'm just glad it's out of the way. 

Wiv; Well, let's talk about something much more interesting; "Mundu eftir mér"! It's not a secret to anyone that this is my personal favorite so far in this year's line-up, and I'm really curious about what's going to happen to it. Will it stay in Icelandic for Eurovision Song Contest, or will you translate it to English? 

Greta; I'm not sure yet, actually. It works so well in Icelandic, and a lot of people have contacted me to say they love it the way it is. And Icelandic is my mothertongue so I am partial to it. But at the same time I really want as many people as possible to understand the lyrics of my song, and that means English. I am working on the English lyrics, but I will never perform an English version of the song if I'm not convinced that it is as good as, or better than, the Icelandic. But for now I am looking at both options. We have even thought about doing it bilingually. But no decision has been made yet. 

Wiv; And will there be a video for "Mundu eftir Mér"?

Greta; Absolutely! We haven't started filming it yet, but the process of preparing for it is well under way. 

Wiv; Can we hope for a video that is as dramatic and "Icelandic" as the song itself? And perhaps a visualization of the lovestory it tells? Even perhaps filmed in the same place where the real events took place? 

Greta; That would be a logic guess, so perhaps...

Wiv; So; do you have any estimate as to when we will know the final version of the song? 

Greta; No date has been set or anything, but all songs must be submitted in it's final form to the EBU by mid-March, so that's the absolute deadline. 

Greta, Wiv and Jónsi, after the victory

Wiv; Thanks a lot for taking the time to talk to me again. We will be keeping a keen eye on all developments with the lyrics and the video, an any other news concerning your song and performance! 

Photos; Wivs@escNorge