Trivia / Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

• Actor Allusion: One of the lyrics to Greece’s Eurovision entry is ‘It’s all permitted’ – Melissanthi Mahut, the actress who plays Mita, was previously a voice actor for a series of games with the slogan ‘Nothing is true, everything is permitted’.
• Billing Displacement:
  • Demi Lovato is billed among the main cast despite appearing only very briefly and having very few lines.
  • Graham Norton is credited alongside the lead actors despite only appearing in a cameo in the final act.
• California Doubling: The Iceland Song Contest scenes were filmed at Conway Hall in London. The Edinburgh venue's interior shots were filmed at the actual 2019 venue, in Tel Aviv.
• The Cast Show Off: While all of the former Eurovision winners get to show off their pipes, Alexander Rybak breaks out his violin for some musical accompaniment for the "Song-Along".
• Cast the Expert: Many actual Eurovision acts make cameos in the film (some appear during the "Song-Along" scene, others like Salvador Sobral show up in other scenes), several of the songs were co-written Eurovision and national selection veterans (one of whom wrote Ukraine's 2014 entry "Tick Tock," the inspiration for the giant hamster wheel in the film's climax), and the commentators include William Lee Adams, founder and head writer of a well-known Eurovision fansite, and British Eurovision commentator Graham Norton.
• Completely Different Title:
  • According to Rachel McAdams, the film's subtitle was originally intended to be "the saga of Fire Saga," but this was changed as it was felt that the use of "saga" as an improper noun wouldn't translate well.
    • Portuguese speakers apparently didn't consider this to be a problem, as their version of the subtitle literally translates to "the saga of Sigrit and Lars."
  • Mita Xenakis' song is titled "Masquerade" in the film, but is credited as "Come and Play - Masquerade" on the soundtrack album. This has been further shortened by many fans to just "Come and Play," as this line is featured prominently in the song's chorus.
• Directed by Cast Member: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Gerardo García was the ADR director and one of the additional voices.
• Fake Nationality: Several examples. The flags of the lead actors' home countries are even displayed in the credits.
  • Americans Will Ferrell and Demi Lovato, Canadian Rachel McAdams, and Irish Pierce Brosnan as Icelandics.
  • English Dan Stevens as a Russian.
  • Averted by the actual Icelanders in the cast (e.g. Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, and Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, among others). Mikael Persbrandt still counts, though, as he's Scandinavian, but Swedish, not Icelandic.
• Hollywood Old: Assuming Sigrit and Lars are similar in age, Sigrit should be, at the very least, in her late 40s. She is played by 41-year-old Rachel McAdams.
• Non-Singing Voice:
  • Sigrit's vocals are a blend of Rachel McAdams' and Swedish singer Molly Sandén's; the latter previously represented Sweden in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2006 and has competed in Melodifestavalen (Sweden's national selection for Eurovision) many times.^note The soundtrack versions are all Sanden. Rachel McAdams does, however, get a couple of chances to sing by herself, such as the scene in which Fire Saga are in the recording studio (during which Lars comments that Sigrit doesn't sound like herself).
  • Dan Stevens' singing voice is provided by Erik Mjönes.
  • Melissanthi Mahut's singing voice is provided by Petra Nielsen.
• Ripped from the Headlines:
  • A possible unintentional case. Iceland had no choice but to send in Fire Saga after Katiana, the first-choice, was killed in a boat explosion with all her fellow contestants. During the 2011 edition of Söngvakeppnin, Iceland's national selection show, Sigurjón "Sonni" Brink died days before his semi-final; his friends got together as "Sonni's Friends" and performed his song, "Aftur helm" ("Coming Home"), which eventually won the right to represent Iceland at Düsseldorf 2011, where they reached the grand final and finished twentieth. Some reviewers wondered whether a country could send a replacement act if the original(s) had died, especially in such a way.
    • Runner-up entries have happened occasionally for Italy, who essentially win first refusal at the Sanremo Music Festival, Italy's national selection show (and itself a precursor to Eurovision), but the most notorious runner-up entrant was Ann Sophie (Germany, 2015), who only took over after national-selection winner Andreas Kümmert declined the prize onstage (despite a significant 78.7%-21.3% lead over Ann Sophie, herself a Wild Card entrant); needless to say, she bombed hard at Vienna, placing last with host Austria's Makemakes and both even scoring nul points. Ukraine and Belarus also have had some messy national selections, which have resulted in the original choice not going — in 2019, Ukraine withdrew from the contest altogether when the selected singer refused to sign what was seen as a Leonine Contract to go to Tel Aviv and none of the other national final competitors wanted to replace her.
  • Lars' human-sized hamster wheel may seem ridiculous, but similar props have been used by Real Life Eurovision contestants. This was spoofed by the 2016 contest's Swedish hosts Måns Zelmerlöw and Petra Mede, who performed a skit detailing all of the supposed ingredients for a winning Eurovision performance—one of which was "a man in a hamster wheel."
• Produced by Cast Member: Will Ferrell (Lars) also serves as one of the film's producers.
• Promoted Fanboy: Will Ferrell has been a Eurovision fan since his (Swedish) wife Viveca Paulin introduced him to it in 1999, and he attended the 2018 edition in preparation for the film.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Jamie and Natasia Demetriou play Kevin Swain and Nina, members of the production team hired by the Icelandic Eurovision committee.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub:
    • Gerardo García provided additional voices along with his daughter Constanza.
    • Arturo Castañeda voices Corin and his sister Carla voices Sasha.
• Schedule Slip: The film was originally planned to be released in May 2020 in conjunction with that year's contest, but its cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic bumped the release of the film a month to June 2020.
• What Could Have Been: Dan Stevens was initially meant to perform his character's songs in the movie, but he couldn't record them due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so his singing voice is instead provided by Swedish baritone Erik Mjönes.

---