With all the recent financial troubles that Iceland have been having over the last couple of years, it’s probably a great relief to them that the Icelandic tourist board isn’t needing a great deal of money of late. Why not? Well, because the UK pop industry seems to be doing their job for them, that’s why!
Westlife’s video for their latest single ‘What About Now’, has confirmed that there really is no better setting than Iceland, for a moody, MOR, pop/rock ballad performed by brooding gentlemen from the British Isles! Filmed in Vatnajökull, it beautifully showcases a unique character of the Icelandic landscape. It follows on from the video for ‘Patience’ by Take That. ‘Patience’ saw the band wander through a calmer, less glacial characteristic of the country, before the finale of the last chorus where the Icelandic weather finally rears the dark clouds and intrusive gales that its reputation has led us to expect from it. But Take That weren’t the first to cotton on to Iceland’s potential as the ideal backdrop for a hope and gloom juxtaposition. Brian McFadden filmed his video for ‘Demons’ there a year or two earlier. And his capture of the beauty and inimatable atmosphere of the place has actually yet to be bettered.
Here they all are in glorious technicolour! Three shiny and expensive advertisements for Iceland!