Hatari

Hatari is an Icelandic techno, industrial and punk rock band from Reykjavík. Their public image incorporates elements of anti-capitalism and BDSM-inspired attire. Hatari was founded in 2015 by Klemens Hannigan and Matthías Haraldsson. Einar Stefánsson joined later.

 

Their first public appearance was at the Iceland Airwaves Festival in 2016, where they also performed two years later. They released their first EP “Neysluvara” in 2017. At Easter 2018, the band organized an event, which they called the Doomsday Festival.

 

In December 2018 they released their third single “Spillingardans”. At the same time as the song was released, they announced the end of Hatari because they had not achieved their goal of overthrowing capitalism. However, the band did not end at all.

In 2019, they won Söngvakepnnin, the national final for the Eurovision Song Contest, with the song “Hatrið mun sigra”. After their victory in Iceland, they said in interviews that they wanted to use the participation to protest against Israeli politics. The band qualified for the final on may 16. When the hosts announced the points to the band from the audience, they showed banners with the Palestinian flag to protest against the Israeli occupation and the ongoing state of war. However, this political message violated the rule of political neutrality. The EBU announced that it would investigate the procedure in more detail. In the end, the Icelandic TV station RÚV, was sentenced by the EBU to pay a fine of €5,000.

After Eurovision, the band released a music video for the song “Klefi / Samed”, which was shot in Jericho. The song was a collaboration with the Palestinian musician Bashar Murad. Hatari´s debut album “Neyslutrans” was released in early 2020, when their Europe Will Crumble tour started. Unfortunately, due to COVID19, they had to quit the tour. In 2021, they had a new tour, Dance or Die.