10. Daníel Ágúst – Það Sem Enginn Sér (Iceland 1989)
What went wrong?
We start the countdown with Iceland’s first of two last placed songs, but its only nul pointer, and just a quick look at the performance will make it fairly obvious why it ended up where it did. In a year filled with incredibly bland but ultimately inoffensive songs, this one stood out as being actively offputting to juries. His glares down the camera, the off-key falsetto, those trousers which were surely never in fashion, and just how plain it was that he did not want to be there in the first place – none of the above will have done anything to endear the jurors to poor Daníel, who propped up the scoreboard with a big fat zero.
Redeeming features?
Nevertheless, once you take away all the extreme discomfort that comes with the live performance, it’s actually not a bad little song. OK it’s not remarkable and wouldn’t really set the scoreboard alight in most circumstances, but it’s got a nice chord progression and melody that you can hum along to, especially in the more accessible studio version (and even more accessible English version).
