The Real Meaning Behind 'Husavik' By Savan Kotecha

Performed by Molly Sanden, the Oscar-nominated ballad "Husavik" incorporates the Icelandic language into its lyrics (per Genius.) The character Marianne sings about her hometown with affection and humor: "Where the mountains sing through the screams of seagulls / Where the whales can live 'cause they're gentle people."

Savan Kotecha explained the lyrics in an interview with Variety, revealing that his Swedish wife used to "force" him to watch Eurovision, so he was already very familiar with the competition. "When I watched Eurovision, it always felt like the English lyrics were sort of Google-translated into English," he joked.

"And some of them were ridiculous, obviously, in general. But we wanted to make the melodies really, really strong. That's a great thing about Eurovision," Kotecha commented. "You know, you take away the lyrics, you take away maybe the over-the-top production, and the structure of the songs and the melodies are really, really good. So I thought, okay, if we're going to do this, we need to make the melodies fantastic."

He also described how the song addresses how Rachel McAdams' character feels in the movie. "Because that's the moment where she's confessing that all she needed was him," Kotecha told Variety. "We wanted it to feel earnest. We knew Will (Ferrell) would bring the comedy into singing the echoes in the second verse. But it felt like with this one, the moment was all about what she was feeling and her really expressing herself."

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