While many are focusing on New Year’s resolutions, or recovering from over indulgence and extended family awkwardness, a fierce war is raging on a North Atlantic Island between an energy giant and the most spirited karaoke singers, musicians and magical creatures of the land.
On the auspicious day of Threttándinn, Icelandic singer Bjork officially launched a karaoke marathon and song festival extravaganza as part of a campaign to win back her country’s natural resources.
The event was put together to revoke Canadian Magma Energy’s acquisition agreement of Icelandic energy company HS Orka, which Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir believes is a distinct possibility providing the event can garner roughly 35,000 signatures.
And with 20,000 signatures already in hand, Bjork is confident the petition’s goal – “Icelandic natural resources shall be owned and governed by the public” – shall be met before the event is through.
Kicking off at 3pm in the Nordic House in Reykjavik, the nation’s capital, the festival saw karaoke titans and hot dog Icelandic singers bust out in melodious splendour until midnight last night. The event, which is set to continue for three days, includes visits to various other parts of the country.
In an interview with Icelandic newspaper Fréttabladid, Bjork exclaimed it was no coincidence the event kicked off on Threttándinn, also known as the ‘last day of Christmas’ – a magical time where elves sprout from the hills, supernatural beings roam freely, and cows speak fluent English.
It is said on Threttándinn that elves and trolls attempt to lure folk into their world, and those that listen to a cow’s conversation will become utterly deranged – all the while Atlantic seals shed their skin before walking naked around the Island in a unique oceanic fashion parade.
Although, with the blood of the hills flowing through their veins, the singers yielding their nationalistic sword of harmony have very little to worry about. It is the foreigners, with their strange smells and un-Icelandic machines, that will be lost, driven to madness, sucked into a land to which they don’t belong, to the gradually fading sounds of Icelandic karaoke.