When my family and I were planning our family holiday in Southern Europe recently, I realized that we have very different approaches to travel planning. Although I’m not an obsessive planner, I like to have a rough idea about the places I’m about to visit and their offerings. I will look at blog posts for points of interest, see possible routes on Google maps if we’re renting a car and check on things like whether we’ll be needing cash or a credit card to pay for things. You know basic stuff so we won’t starve or accidentally drive off a cliff.
My family, it seems, doesn’t care about any of these things. When I would ask them what they most wanted to see I would usually get a shrug followed by a somewhat unenthusiastic I don’t know.
Now, I understand a 16-year-old may have other things to worry about (like what her favorite actors are doing on social media) and her father is just so laid back that he was probably thinking he’d just get to it later (when the trip was over, perhaps) but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t have to scream into my pillow a few times during this process.
By some miracle, we were able to put down at least a tentative route and decide approximately which cities and towns we wanted to visit. I thought this would inspire them to do some more research but next time I asked whether they had given this some more thought the answers were just more of the same. Except the 16-year-old proudly shared with me that she had compiled a list of songs on Spotify with her favorite artists that somehow represented each city we were planning to visit.
Not very helpful but at least she’s creative. I’ll give her that.
So this post is inspired by our 16-year-old and my family’s stupendous abilities in planning a family vacation. We’ll listen to her playlist while we drive off that cliff.
Reykjavík – Emmsjé Gauti
The last few years there’s been an explosion in the Icelandic rap scene and Emssjé Gauti has been very much part of that. He’s not quite as prolific as some of the younger rappers, who seem to come out with a new album every other week, but he’s managed to capitalize on his popularity by getting sweet deals from car dealerships (like any real rapper) and he recently, in cooperation with others opened up a Burger Joint in the hipster lair of Vesturbær.
I usually know about everything he does because my brother-soon-to-be-in-law does all his graphics. Like this album cover. Said soon-to-be-in-law also made the graphics for my walking tours that you can on the sidebar on the right. He’s a talented guy and is always looking for new projects (breidholt.com)
Reykjavík – Sykur
This song always gets me into a good mood. Both because it’s a catchy song but also because it brings back fun memories of seeing the band perform it live. Probably during Iceland Airwaves Music Festival which I attended religiously before I got old, tired and married.
Sykur last released a song in 2018 I think but their last album, Mesopótamía (which had this song) came out in 2011. So maybe not the most active band around anymore. You can sometimes find the singer, Agnes, guiding foodies around the city on the Reykjavík Food Walk.
Fröken Reykjavík – Friðrik Dór
I have to admit that I don’t listen much to Friðrik Dór, mainly because his genre is maybe not my favorite (pop and Icelandic R&B), but there’s no denying that he is very popular in Iceland. He’s a big hit with kids and younger adults and he always has a hit or two every year at the Icelandic pop charts.
This song, Fröken Reykjavík (e. Miss Reykjavík) is actually an old and very well known pop song that he added his flair to. Obviously, as it tends to be with these things, the older generation did not like his version of it. Old man yells at cloud and all that.
Reykjavík er ömurleg – Innvortis
If there are any Icelanders reading this they may be surprised to see this song on this list. It was very popular one year and got a lot of radio play. It’s also quite catchy, especially the chorus, and you can’t help but sing along. The reason this might be a bit controversial is the fact that Reykjavík er ömurleg literally means Reykjavík sucks.
Although I obviously don’t agree with the sentiment I thought it would be good to include to appeal to a wider audience.
Innvortis is a punk/rock band from Húsavík in north Iceland. There was a study a few years ago that suggested that people that live outside of Reykjavík, and the further away the stronger the correlation, sometimes think the city is too big and busy (and dangerous, believe it or not) so I’m going to blame their feelings towards our beloved capital on that. They just haven’t visited often enough!
(They probably live in Reykjavík though, like 2/3 of the nation but let’s just pretend that’s not true)
Reykjavíkurnætur – Megas
Megas is one of Iceland’s most beloved and prolific singer/songwriters and definitely one of the city’s quirkiest characters. He’s an amazing poet and his singing style is very distinctive. He wrote his first song around the age of 14 and released his first album in the 70s.
Most Icelanders know a number of his songs by heart and I have a lot of memories of my older relatives singing his songs back in the day when good ‘ol guitar parties were still all the rage.
If I’m not mistaken, it’s none other than Björk herself singing backup vocals in this song.
Ó Reykjvík – Vonbrigði
I have to admit that I don’t know much about Vonbrigði other than they were a punk band in 80s and they opened the legendary music documentary Rokk í Reykjavík with a performance of this song.
I’m sure you can learn more about them at the Icelandic Punk Museum and if you haven’t seen Rokk í Reykjavík, you can catch it at the Icelandic Museum of Rock and Roll in Reykjanesbær. Or, you know, online.
This post first appeared on I Heart ReykjavÃk - Iceland Travel, please read the originial post: here
