#scared of heights

[jtl-fics]

Uggghhh on the plane. I hate flying, I know too many pilots to feel comfortable.

[borisbubbles]

Eurovision 2024: #29

29. ICELAND Hera Björk - "Scared of heights" 37th place

Decade Ranking: 110/153 [Above ReDDI, below Tix]

That awkward moment you're halfway through the next update and realize you skipped over someone. 😬

Sadly, I did NOT feel it coming. 😔 Iceland is another one of those cases of "I probably could have liked them, if not for a few detrimental flaws." I mean it's Hera Björk with wine mom disco. There are worse things in life.

Unfortunately Hera suffered from not only her dated song being completely outclassed by everyone in the first semi (bad enough by itself), but also by *other* mom disco anthems from previous years and nfs, including Heaven's not that far tonight, High Heels in the Neighbourhood (lmfao) and Hera's own 2010 song. "Scared of Heights" is not an unpleasant song to listen to, but that's about as baseline as the genre gets, rly.

Combine that song with a lifeless act forever stuck with no movement and a bunch of wideshots at key moments (how did they make it look WORSE compared to SVK's already lowbudget affair?), like yeah, we know where this is headed. It's the "Unstoppable Object Collides Into An Unmovable Wall" of hopeless last placers. There's nothing that Hera could have done to avoid a red lantern, not with that song and that act working so hard to undermine her efforts.

I do have a bit of sympathy for her though. Even a suboptimal Hera Björk is still Hera fucking Björk (vocally excellent and decently charming) , and the bullshit she had to endure simply to be allowed to sing at the Tuesday show was uncalled for.

After SVK's... darksided results - which Hera won because the Anti-Pro-Palestine Icelanders thought SHE had the best chance of beating Bashar although (1) have you seen Bashar perform? Man cannot serve for his life (2) um, Sigga was right there (3) Hera's song was co-written by a Palestinian? (leave it to the Israel sympathisers to be misinformed, incoherent and smugly incorrect - defo, abso looking at YOU, J*n B*rs.) (4) GO TIFFANY!!!! INTO THE ATMOSPHERE!!! - she then had to negotiate with RÚV in order to go to Malmö (although she WON the SELECTION!!) . This as per the rules Iceland had established for SVK2024. RUV's weird decision to play for the moral high ground, but only partially. Like dudes, if you're going to be antsy about Israel being there, then don't hold SVK? and if you do hold, don't be like "WELL WE MIGHT JUST WD ANYWAY [if the wrong person [anyone but Bashar] wins]" like fuck off? Either you make a statement by INTERNALLY picking Bashar, or you don't make one at all by not including him in SVK. Pick a fucking lane.

Once she arrived in Sweden, well... Remove Iceland from this year and everything that went down still goes down in the precisely the same fashion, with the exact same placements for everyone else. The only true difference is that KAN have one fewer delegation to target with passive aggression. Whether Hera went to Eurovision or not made no difference to the contest itself which is some exponential level of irrelevance that she does not deserve to have attached to her legacy.

So all-in-all, a sour return for Hera, but the one Iceland deserved after they trashed their EXCELLENT national final for the sake of questionable priorities, and then picked the INCORRECT winner to boot ("Wild West" wasn't fantastic and (thankfully) wouldn't have won ESC, but it is a much better song than "Scared of Heights" was. ) The Icelandic shitshow was a prélude to what was to follow in Malmö. Events which, just like Hera's participation in this year, probably should have been avoided by competent leadership.

THE RANKING

[stella-rose91]

8)Iceland-Hera Björk-Scared of Heights.

Not bad dance song. Hera was a little nervous, but she did a great work. You can listen this, where you have journey on a car. I give 7 points from 12.

The perfomance from first semifinal.

[falling-mellow]

Iceland's song not bad either 🇮🇸

[addisonacres]

HOW DO THEY GET BACK DOWN????

Nope, nope, nope, hell to the fucking no.

[anotherescsite]

Thirty Seven Little Films - Iceland

Scared of Heights - Hera Bjork

Selection method: National final Has it been heard live? Yes Semi final # 1 Drawn: 8th

The thing that saves this song from being a disaster is Hera Bjork's ability to sing well, and a banging good outfit. The less said about the rest, the better.

[aijamisespava]

Iceland Has Decided!

Well, well, well. We've made it to the second to last selection weekend! We have Portugal and Sweden wrapping up next week, and a little later, I will be writing about the song Serbia chooses. But now, we have Iceland as they had Söngvakeppnin occur, and now, we have a winner!

Iceland is sending..."Scared of Heights" by Hera Björk!

WHAT? That was one of my favorites! I'm super excited for this entry (I've heard the Icelandic version and have yet to hear the English version that Hera will be sending to Eurovision). Especially since I think Hera is one of the returning artists that fans have wanted to see make a return! So now we have that.

Congratulations and Welcome Back, Hera! I can't wait to see this performance in May!

[ohzeusetc]

No I DONT want the high top 😡

[gaymer-hag-stan]

Eurovision 2024 - Meet the Malmö Participants

🇮🇸 Iceland - Hers Björk - "Scared of Heights"

The Queen is back!

Hera Björk captured the international spotlight when she represented Iceland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with her hit song Je Ne Sais Quoi.

But this diva’s presence has been felt across the Euro-verse since the 2008 Contest, when she provided backing vocals for Iceland’s participant Euroband, before competing in Denmark's Melodi Grand Prix a year later.

Her talents have shone brightly in various competitions and events, including her celebrated anthem Feel the Love Tonight for LGBTQ+ pride events in 2011, her triumphant victory with Because We Can at Viña del Mar festival in 2013, and her emotionally charged rendition of Moving On in the Songvakeppnin final in 2019.

[inkskinned]

we were sitting on the floor and i was cutting out tiny pictures to make a collage for a friend's birthday. you were on your phone and you laughed about something, and i was still in love with you then, so i asked what had you giggling.

"sorry. i was just..." you took a moment and went back to texting. "i was telling someone about how you're afraid of the dark."

i'm afraid of the dark because something bad happened. "oh." i felt a little slinky of shame crawl down my throat.

you glanced up, and maybe it showed on my face, because you rolled your eyes and held the phone to the side casually so i could see the group chat. "what? was it a secret?"

i looked down to the scissors in my hand. "i just..." no, it's not a secret. it just felt like something private, something serious. saying why would you tell someone that just feels like an accusation. it's unfair. i honestly am not even ashamed of it, it's just a fact about my person that i don't usually share.

what a strange experience. is this a human thing or a generational thing? for our grandparents: did they need to worry about how quickly someone can just... share your personal information? again, i didn't even really have a true objection. what could i say? i want any person in my life to feel they can be honest with their friends. it's not like i said don't tell anyone this.

i cut out another letter to complete the rainbow happy birthday, started hunting for the exclamation mark. i heard you sigh dramatically.

"don't make a big deal about this," you said.

this entire conversation was a pattern for us, and this was when we got to my least favorite part of the pattern. i would get my feelings hurt in some oblique not-technically-terrible way, and then it would be making a big deal about something. you'd get frustrated for me for being soft, but i was born soft. you knew i was soft when you pierced me. it's one of the things that made controlling me so easy.

"i'm not," i felt my voice crack. the question came without my wanting. "why are you guys talking about me?" and why are you saying that thing? why not like - i'm telling them how you're generous and kind and pretty.

you let out this low, tragic groan. "oh my god." you tossed the phone away from your body. "there, see? i just won't talk to them if you don't like it."

the rest of the hour went the way it always went, between us: i said i don't actually mind if you talk to your friends but -, you found a way to call my minor expression of discomfort "being dramatic." you got upset that i had been offended. i ended up apologizing, even though i hadn't actually done anything.

afterwards, you picked up the phone again. after texting for a little bit, you snorted. "okay," you said, "but it is kind of funny you're afraid of the dark. i mean, when you think about it."

[zooeytang]

Funny pressure test on site! Fear of heights cannot stop us jump down this thing!

[hierba-picante]

Just two idiots who don't know what to do with their hands during a smooch :]

[kevindavidday]

okay but jean having a breakdown post tsc 2 interview and all three of his love interests rushing to him to console him in various ways and it overwhelms him so much he ends up leaving them behind to sit next to neil instead

[anotherescsite]

Hera Bjork

Iceland

[hellenhighwater]

Hellen, how do you know how to do so many things? I know how to do a few things but I look at your stuff and every time I'm like "damn. I wish I could do that"

oh, I just do them.

It's after 1:30 am, so you get the existential answer. The fun thing about personhood is you get to just be whatever. You can't necessarily do whatever--money and laws are things, unfortunately, and you only get so much control over the opportunities available to you. But you can sort of just throw yourself down on the anvil of life and hammer yourself into whatever shape you want. Ideally the process of it drives out some flaws as you go, but sometimes also you take an impurity and make yourself stronger with it.

I am, still, a person who is terrified of failure; of incorrectness; of being wrong. And there is nothing to do with fear except shatter it with blunt force, and so I line myself up against failure again and again and again. I will try. I must; or the fear of failure wins, and I must keep trying after I fail or I have failed utterly. I fear failure, and therefore I take it as a challenge. I must do what I think I cannot. And you know what? More often than not, I can.

I have a weird and wandering skillset because I make myself try things, knowing full well that I will remember for decades every time someone saw me be less than instantly successful, because the only way I know to get better is to batter down the dross of my own fear. That's the deal. I'm not doing anything that nobody has done before. I know it's all possible. I just have to be the sort of person that does it. And it gets easier every time. If the question is can it be done and the answer is yes, then the next question is can I be the one to do it, and the answer is I want to be.

Every time I fail my way over and over to eventual success, trying again the next time is less scary; every time I have a broader base of skills to carry to the next challenge. I'm not unusually talented, just stubborn as hell, and I've lived long enough on I have to do what scares me that honestly, not that much scares me anymore.

If you keep failing long enough, it turns out that you just get really good at problem solving, and figuring out unconventional ways to reach your goals. It's not about a special secret concoction of skills, it's about persistence, and hammering away until you've taken a mess and made it into something you think is worth keeping. It's not easy, but it is simple.

Also I have incredibly strong unmedicated ADHD. But I sort of assume that's glaringly obvious.

[cheesomancer]

If life gives you a demon, ride it. That's how it was, right? 🤔

Full pic is here!