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🇮🇸 Iceland /Culture & Society

The Wild Duck Song That Stuck in Iceland’s Cultural Elite’s Throat

From Morgunblaðið · () Icelandic

Translated from Icelandic and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

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  • Magnús Jóhann Ragnarsson and GDRN have released a new version of the Icelandic favorite “Söngur villiandarinnar.”
  • The unreleased recording drew harsh criticism from several prominent cultural commentators after it was played on the radio.
  • Magnús says listeners should hear the song themselves and will perform it as the closing track in the film “Fuglar og menn.”

Magnús Jóhann Ragnarsson has offered Iceland’s cultural elite an apology for releasing a song they had already attacked as one of the worst in the country’s musical history.

The musician and GDRN released their version of “Söngur villiandarinnar” last Thursday. Several well-known cultural commentators had criticized the track after an unreleased recording reached the radio. Magnús discussed the backlash on the program Spursmál.

He said he had wanted to record the Swedish folk song, set to Icelandic lyrics by Jakob Hafstein, for years. It did not make the pair’s album “Tíu íslensk sönglög,” but the opportunity returned when Magnús wrote music for the film “Fuglar og menn,” which premieres in September. The film needed a closing song, so he called his friend Guðrún, known professionally as GDRN, and asked her to sing it.

Probably nobody will dare make another version. It is quite remarkable that Guðrún and I dared to release it.

· Magnús Jóhann RagnarssonHe responded lightly to the harsh criticism of the new recording.

The recording initially received some praise. Visual artist Jón Óskar heard it during an interview with Árni Matthíasson and wrote that he found the performance beautiful. Others disagreed sharply. Magnús named Egill Helgason, Illugi Jökulsson, Jónas Sen and Jón Viðar Jónsson among those who described the song as a disaster and “one of the worst” pieces in Icelandic music overall.

Magnús treated the criticism lightly. “Probably nobody will dare make another version. It is quite remarkable that Guðrún and I dared to release it,” he said. He then apologized to the “cultural elite,” while urging listeners to ignore the experts’ judgments, hear the recording and form their own opinions. The song is available on Spotify and will close “Fuglar og menn.” Magnús will also mark his 30th birthday and ten years in music with a concert at Háskólabíó on Sept. 17.

I naturally apologize to this cultural elite for this act of ours, Guðrún’s and mine.

· Magnús Jóhann RagnarssonHe jokingly addressed the cultural commentators who attacked the song.
About this summary

Originally published by Morgunblaðið in Icelandic. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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