Iceland – Þórunn Erna Klausen the widow of Sigurjón Brink and co-writer of Aftur Heim, Pálmi Sigurhjartarson has talked about her husband’s sudden death, the plans for Eurovision and the genesis of the Icelandic entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 on television yesterday. As Flosi Jon Ofeigsson reports on his blog, Klausen explained, that the song was written and composed in a single evening and that they submitted the song just 2 minutes before the deadline. Sigurjón Brink, who died shortly before the Icelandic final, wrote the song in English, but asked his wife to write Icelandic lyrics for the song (as the rules for the Icelandic national final stated that the songs had to be in the national language).
She also talked about the tragedy of losing her husband. She explained, that he could not have been saved, even if a doctor had been right at his side. Klausen went on saying, that the lyrics of the song she had composed with her husband are about spending as much time as possible with your family as you never know what the next day will bring. She and a band member of “Sigurjón’s Friends” said it was hard to hear all the people claiming that the song only won the national final due to sympathy votes.
The song will be performed in English at Eurovision and no major changes will be made. They both said that it is very important for them that the story behind the song will be known and that Europe will get it. They don’t expect anything from the competition and just want to make one of Sigurjón’s wishes come true: To have as many people as possible listen to his music.
The Eurovision Times 
Pityful decision. We don’t need a song to be sung in English to be able to listen to it!
And it’s “losing”, not “loosing” for God’s sake!
1. Thanks for correcting me
2. I’m not a native speaker so please understand that I make mistakes! You don’t need to go all “God’s sake” on my as*
3. It’s Nelly Furtado’s fault, why did she have to call her album “loose” aaa. I can’t get that out of my head.
4. You write “pitiful” like this not like this: PitYful, honey!
Served ^^
Hahahaha regarding loose vs. lose, in another chatroom I corrected someone who said ‘I hope I don’t loose’ and then he said then why Nelly’s album is called Loose. I said that because she wanted that title, but it doesn’t mean the opposite of win it means the opposite of tight and someone else said because that girl is loose. :p
obviously
Fair enough, Eurovisiontimes (excuse me, I don’t konw your name). It’s just that ‘loose’ is an adjective and it is pronunced [lu:s] whereas ‘lose’ is a verb and is pronounced [lu:z]. If it can reassure you, English is not my native language either and I am not trying to put you down since every one can make mistakes; thank you to correct mine. By the way, if you check my other comments, you’ll see that I usually write ‘pitiful’ correctly :)
I know the difference ;) Just sometimes Nelly Furtado influences my subconcious ^^
Interesting point about Nelly Furtado ;)
*dropping out of my top 6 … and approaching all those cr*ps on the other side of the big gap* :( :( :(
The same here. Iceland 11 is heading down towards the bottom half of my list.
Same here. God… The only song that will stay in its national language 100% is Spain…
… and the Portuguese entry.
… and France, and Serbia … and perhaps even Austria … ‘Oida Taunz’ :)
Slovakia has joined the English bandwagon, Aurela’s is bilingual and Senit’s too if the rumors about her songs are true.
I hope we get more 100% national-language entries this weekend.
ROFL how hypocrit : make everyone sing in icelandic home (to look good on icelandic tv and media) and then let’s everyone have an english version ready (im sure they all had one ready in the final!)
like the 2007 ok song that became “valentine” and went hugely down for me… after netherlands, a lot of songs will be changed again, which i hate i don’t mind songs in English as long as they were written in such… maye slovenia could keep it original too? anyway the same countries as usual, portugal, spain, france, serbia!
We don’t need this song in English. If it’s a tribute to Sjonni then it should be in his native language.
Unfortunately, I agree that this song only won on a sympathy vote. Magni was robbed for the wrong reasons
“We don’t need this song in English. If it’s a tribute to Sjonni then it should be in his native language.”
If you read the article, he wrote the song originally in English, and only got his wife to translate to Icelandic as the rules stated. So if in honour to him, it should be sung how he intended it to be originally.
… If we’re being pedantic about things :)