Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga’ is a musical comedy that uses the biggest music contest in Europe as its premise. The film is a fun ride that reels in the audience with its interesting characters and catchy tunes. It also surprises us as it begins as one thing and ends on a completely different note. If you haven’t seen the film yet, head over to Netflix. SPOILERS AHEAD
Plot Summary
The only thing that Lars has ever wanted in his life is to win the Eurovision song contest. He has given his life to it, has suffered humiliation from others, and has been despised by his father. He has even maintained a distance from Sigrit, the other half of his band, who has been with him since childhood and whom he loves very much. His sacrifices pay off when the call for Eurovision finally arrives. Though Lars has complete faith in their song, he and Sigrit realize that the road to victory is not an easy one.
Who blew up the boat?
Despite their good intentions and decent talent, Fire Saga is not the best band in Iceland. We meet the best singer in the country at the beginning of the film, while there still exists a choice for the committee to choose someone to represent Iceland on the international platform. They all agree that Katiana is not only the most obvious option in the whole country, but she is also good enough to be a strong contender and, might even bring the trophy home.
Katiana might have had all the talent in the world, but the one thing that she didn’t have was luck. Fire Saga, on the other hand, was living on it. The first stroke of good luck for Lars and Sigrit comes when their CD is randomly chosen out of a box. Sigrit thanks the elves for working their magic for them; Lars believes they were chosen for their talent.
The next step in their journey is to win the national contest, where they have to beat Katiana and go on to perform at Eurovision. The performance goes horribly and Lars, once again, finds everyone laughing at him. With such a disaster, he knows that there is no hope for them at all. But then, their good luck comes through again, though in a very gruesome manner.
All the participants are invited to a boat party after the performances. Because Fire Saga’s act doesn’t turn out as well as he had expected, Lars is in no mood for celebration. And even though Sigrit had been excited for attending the party, she doesn’t because of Lars. What was the worst thing to have happened to them turns into the best thing to happen to them when the entire boat explodes and everyone on it dies. While this is truly horrific, it also means that Lars and Sigrit are the only participants left now, which makes them Iceland’s default entry to Eurovision.
As they prepare for the contest, they don’t stop to wonder what led to the explosion. The answer comes out just before the ending when Victor attacks Lars. In the beginning, when Katiana was still in the picture and everyone was excited about her, Victor Karlosson expressed his concern over Iceland’s chances of winning the competition. He thought that even though winning Eurovision might bring great honor to the country, it means that they would have to host the event next year, and their economy was just not ready to handle an event of such scale.
Because his colleagues wouldn’t listen to him, he decided to get rid of the problem differently. If he killed all the contestants, leaving no room for runner ups, there would be no entry from Iceland, and hence, no chances of winning. However, he didn’t count in the luck of Fire Saga, and they survived the attack. Even then, after their abysmal performance, Victor believed they would never win the competition. However, defying everyone’s expectations, Lars and Sigrit succeeded in winning hearts and made it to the finals.
This is when Victor finally acknowledged them as a problem and when he found Lars alone, he tried to kill him. Unfortunately for him, elves turned out to be real and they saved Lars, who started believing in them for the sake of Sigrit.
The Ending
After getting the approval of his father and discovering that they have made it to the finals. Lars finds his way back to Eurovision, after escaping Victor’s assassination attempt and getting a rocky ride from the Americans. He enters the stage just as Sigrit starts to sing. He tells her to drop Double Trouble and instead, sing the song she wrote. This is when Sigrit finally sings from her heart and hits the speorg note. She and Lars finally profess their love for each other and leave the competition behind.
Due to the abrupt change of their song, Fire Saga is disqualified from Eurovision, but it doesn’t matter to Lars anymore, as he has understood what’s more important in life. He and Sigrit get married and have a child. However, she is “probably his sister” now that his father and her mother have tied the knot as well.
Read More: Eurovision Filming Locations
