Icelandic Eurovision Song Contest icon Daði Freyr took to the Paradiso stage on Sunday December 10th. Known not only for his two songs submitted to the contest, but also for his bubbly personality and dance moves, he managed to sell out two nights in Amsterdam on the ‘I’m doing a tour’ tour, of which this was the first.
Upon entering the venue, the audience was immediately greeted by an almost life-size cardboard cut-out of the man himself welcoming people to the venue. Quite some fans were wearing the well-known Daði Freyr sweaters, either with his face on it or with a rendition of their own. In the hall itself, Freyr’s giant hands and head – as also shown on his recently released album’s cover, I Made an Album – filled a huge part of the stage.
Half an hour after doors, support act Blusher took to the stage. The girl group from Australia, consisting of Lauren Coutts, Jade Ingvarson-Favretto, and Miranda Ward, immediately went on to perform one of their synth pop bangers ‘Dead End’. While the hall was not very filled yet, the girls received major applause at the end of the song from those already in. All throughout their set, the girls moved around the three microphones on stage, sometimes but not always also making use of either a keyboard or a guitar while performing their tracks. On top of making great use of the stage, they incorporated lots of choreography in almost all the songs they played. Their energy was great and the audience definitely joined in on that by jumping and dancing around. Even the people who were still coming in seemed to be immediately hooked by the raving atmosphere. After two songs that are part of the EP released earlier this year, Should We Go Dance?, and a cover of Nelly Furtado’s ‘Say it Right’, the group introduced new track ‘Rave Angel’. The full thirty minutes of their set was full of bangers and the girls seemed to continuously get more comfortable up there – Jade even sat down to high five a fan. Their joy was extremely infectious; after their time was over, they got such loud applause and cheers. Nobody could help falling in love with them, understandably so.
After a thirty minute break, the musical introduction to Daði Freyr’s show burst through the speakers: “Hi, my name is Daði Freyr. Welcome to the show”. At the end of it, Freyr enters the stage together with his two band members: guitarist and keyboardist Hafsteinn Þráinsson and drummer and keyboardist Ylva. All three of them are wearing black and white outfits with printed faces on them. Freyr opens the set with ‘Thank You’, an immediate shout out to his fans who made it to this show. Some dedicated fans in the venue sing along to the lyrics right from the start and all throughout the show.
Moving on from song to song, Freyr jokes around a lot in between the different tracks on tonight’s setlist. The fans love the banter and are enjoying every second of it. The night’s third song, ‘Sunshine’, is dedicated by Freyr to three people in the middle of the venue who are wearing bright orange sunglasses. Several songs later, after noticing there is actually a fourth person with them wearing silver sunglasses, Freyr dedicated ‘Somebody Else Now’ to them while making every single person in the venue point their way. It must be noted how easily Freyr manages to get all hands on deck and make every single person in attendance join in on his shenanigans. Another example of this happened a few songs earlier, where before playing ‘Sabada’, Freyr introduced the audience to ‘giant Daði’ and asked them to “Ah”, “Oh” or “Hey” depending on what part of the face was touched – left ear, right ear, or the nose. While this looked a little odd, the fans found this very funny and it became an ongoing theme throughout the show.
On the topic of ‘Sabada’, a song originally recorded with artist filous – the fans absolutely loved this one, especially the rainbow-coloured lights glowing during the chorus. Freyr went all out, using light up drumsticks to play Ylva’s drums and letting Hafsteinn do a solo rap. Deservedly, he got major applause for his part – even more so when in the next song, he did a guitar solo as well.
Halfway through the set, a fan at the front of the venue gifted both Ylva and Hafsteinn bracelets with their name on them. This became a bit when they did not have one to give to Freyr himself. Faking being upset over this, he eventually did get a bracelet – however, it supposedly said “shut up”. This led to an impromptu song on Freyr’s side and lots of laughter from the audience. After this bit, he immediately delved into ‘Moves to Make’, making the ‘wiggle waggle’ hand movement and making everyone in the room join in – or at least those able to do so. After this song, the band members leave the stage so Freyr can perform one of his only slow songs, ‘Trying’, alone.
Finally, it is time for one of the most hyped songs of the night, which Freyr introduces by stating that he was supposed to perform it here – meaning in the Netherlands, not Paradiso or even Amsterdam specifically – back in 2021, when due to illness he and his band were not able to play it live at the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam. This obviously referred to his hit ’10 Years’, an upbeat love song written for his wife Arny. The crowd went absolutely crazy for this one.
After playing a few more of his songs, including ‘If You Want To’ which was dedicated to a stuffed shark that he received from a fan, and unreleased track ‘I’m Not Bitter’, Freyr ended the night with his other Eurovision song, ‘Think About Things’. It was evident that while most fans had come mainly to hear this one and ’10 Years’, they enjoyed every second of his set and the energy never went down.
Even though his own repertoire for the night had been performed by now, Freyr came back on stage to do two covers as the encore. An interesting choice, but it did not seem to matter to his fans that he did not end with his own tracks. As soon as Freyr appeared again, a fan shouted “Hakuna Matata” – maybe as a song request? – but Freyr jokingly told him to “shut up” and sang Vengaboys ‘Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!’ instead. The audience majorly enjoyed this song that Freyr performed on his own. Afterwards, Ylva and Hafsteinn joined him one final time to do a cover of Atomic Kitten’s ‘Whole Again’ as the last song of the night.
All in all, the night was full of synth pop hits performed both by support act Blusher as well as by Daði Freyr and his band. The diverse audience loved the songs, the jokes, and the dances all the way from start to finish and were treated to one immensely iconic night.
