Power ballad Húsavík, featured in the newly-released Will Ferrel and Rachel McAdams film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is currently the 7th most popular song on iTunes in the US. The song is charting 4th in Ireland, 5th in the UK, and 8th in Australia on the streaming platform. Critics, however, are not as enthusiastic about the movie as listeners are about its music. RÚV reported first.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga follows Icelandic musicians Lars Erickssong and Sigrit Ericksdóttir (played by Farrel and Adams) as they represent Iceland at the popular song competition. The movie was partially filmed in Húsavík, a town on on Iceland’s north coast.
The Story of Fire Saga has received mixed reviews, with one BBC critic calling it “misjudged and tedious,” and its depiction of Icelanders as “an unsophisticated bunch of beer-drinking, whale-watching, knitted jumper-wearing innocents” as “tiresome and ignorant.” Not all Icelanders agree with the judgement, however. Steinunn Björk Bragadóttir sits on the board of Iceland’s official Eurovision fan club OGAE. “I found it very funny and it showed how we Icelanders are so occupied with appearing cooler than we are,” she stated in an interview. “But we’re just a bunch of people in lopapeysur who want to hear Nína at the bar and nothing else will do.”
