Iceland is having its first semifinal tonight and one of the acts taking part is HINEMOA. They will try to win a ticket to the Söngvakeppni final with the song Þú Leitar Líka Að Mér. We spoke to them about their name, Eurovision and much more. Read what they had to say below!
escXtra.com: Hey Hinemoa! Thanks for doing this interview. How are you preparing for Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 2015?
HINEMOA: It’s our pleasure, and thanks for having us! 🙂 We’ve mostly been playing together, spending time together and singing, alot! We’re having such fun in this adventure and we want to make sure we take as much as we can from this experience.
X: Who are your musical idols?
H: We all come from very different musical backgrounds but we all share a love for jazz music. We all studied and met at the same music institution, playing jazz but somehow we blended pretty nicely into a kind of indie/folk genre band. But among artist we adore are The Paper Kites, Missy Higgins, Matt Corby, Lydia Cole, Fleetwood Mac and so many, many more!
Source: Pacific Island Books
H: The name originates from a New Zealand Maori folk story, about a girl named Hinemoa. The story is very Romeo Juliet’esque with the major difference being that Hinemoa doesn’t let anything stop her and against her fathers wishes swims lakes, climbs mountains and not only gets the man she loves but unites the rival families. A wonderful reminder that you can do anything if you want it enough!
X: Why did you decide to apply for Söngvakeppnin 2015?
H: Truth be told, we didn’t really apply. Asta Bjorg (Hinemoa member and the songs composer) wrote the song and got her good friend Bergrún Íris to write lyrics to it. They entered the song into the competition and when they got in, they decided to have Hinemoa perform it. The band jumped at the possibility to take part in the eurovision fun, and so we are here 😀
X: What can you tell us about your song Þú Leitar Líka Að Mér?
H: It’s pretty upbeat and hopefully it’ll spread some joy! The goal is to get people to dance, and if you don’t like to dance, just wiggle a bit and we’ve done our job! It’s not like most of our songs, we’ll it’s not like any of our other songs! But we love it! And we hope you’ll love it too!
X: If you’d win Söngvakeppnin, would you sing in English or Icelandic in Eurovision?
H: Hmm.. that is an excellent question. We do have lyrics both in Icelandic and English. We like both lyrics so I think it will come as a surprise..
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H: Ahh, they are so many. We all have our favourite places. The island Flatey in Breiðafjörður is a beautiful island, Egilstaðir and Lagarfljót, Ásbyrgi, Mývatn, the Western Fjords.. Iceland is a beautiful country and we come from all over Iceland so we can’t really name a specific place.
X: Do you watch Eurovision every year?
H: Yes we do. It is a tradition here to throw a Eurovision party and we attend one every year (if we are not throwing one). Eurovision is, truth be told almost like a national holiday in Iceland, although some Icelanders are reluctant to admit it!
X: Do you have an all time favourite Eurovision song?
H: We discussed this few days ago and I think all of us are quite fond of Euphoria by Loreen, so that would come the closest to the band’s favourite Eurovision song.
X: Finally, do you have a message for the readers of escXtra.com?
H: Hinemoa would like to thank all those who have shown us support, please like us on facebook (we post regular updates there). And we really, really reaaaaally hope to see you guys in Wien! Have a wonderful day/night and enjoy life!
escXtra.com would like to thank HINEMOA for their time and we’d like to wish them the best of luck in tonight’s Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins semifinal! Watch their song Þú Leitar Líka Að Mér below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuaX0XK1muI
