play jaja ding dong

The Town of Húsavik Would Like an Oscar, Please

Photo: An Óskar for Húsavík

The people of Húsavik, Iceland, woke up today and decided to just go for it, man. After having their town featured in Netflix’s Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, the humble townsfolk have launched their own DIY Oscars campaign aimed at helping the song “Húsavik” bag an Academy Award. The video follows a man from Húsavík named … wait for it … Óskar Óskarsson (played by Sigurður Illugason). He’s the only Oskar in town, you see, and he wants another. The town has even reached out to the elves for help! But can their efforts overcome the sheer rage of “the ‘Jaja Ding Dong’ guy,” who has other ideas about a certain song from the film that should win?

The campaign’s website outlines just how much the song and the film have meant to the people of this tiny town, where two-thirds of all jobs rely on tourism. “For this reason, the town has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic,” read a statement on the website. “But the release of the Netflix film and the song ‘Húsavik’ has lifted the spirit of the people of Húsavík. When we learned that the song, that has become a sort of an anthem for our people, had a chance of an Oscar nomination, we sprung into action.” In fact, there is now an effort to create a temporary museum in Húsavik dedicated to the Eurovision Song Contest that the town hopes to open this summer. As Icelandic musician Daði Freyr once told us, the lyrics to “Húsavik” don’t make a ton of grammatical sense, but I think we can all agree that this song winning an Oscar totally does.

The Town of Húsavík Would Like an Oscar, Please