The (Fake) Songs of Summer

How the surprisingly convincing faux pop tunes of the Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams movie Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga got made.

A compendium of the infectious tunes in Will Ferrell’s Eurovision Song Contest

every year since 1956, usually in May, the nations of Europe have gathered to determine which of them has the most exuberantly kitschy, delightfully overproduced infectious pop song. In 2019, 41 countries competed, including Azerbaijan, Russia, and even Australia, and around 180 million viewers watched the televised contest, but most Americans don’t know much about it. This spring was to be your chance to understand what all those electronic drumbeats mean: Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams as a hapless Icelandic singing duo, was supposed to open theatrically in late May to coincide with the actual event. But with Eurovision itself canceled, Eurovision the movie not only has to stand on its own (on Netflix); it might just have to

eurovision song contest premieres on Netflix June 26.

stand in for the real thing, because the music—ridiculous and catchy in equal measure—is arguably just as good as much of what Eurovision presents anyway.

“I didn’t want Dick in a Box, but we’re also not making A Star Is Born here,” says director David Dobkin, who envisioned the film’s songs walking the fine line between satire and homage. But they also had to work on their own terms as pop. To produce the soundtrack, the filmmakers enlisted Savan Kotecha, who has written and produced pop hits for the likes of Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, and Ellie Goulding. Kotecha, in turn, assembled other writers—some newcomers, some legends, nearly all Scandinavian—to help. For the choreography, the filmmakers hired Tabitha and Napoleon D’umo, veterans of So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol.