Rachel McAdams Is Actually Singing in 'Eurovision', But There's a Secret to Her Powerful Vocals
Rachel McAdams knows the power of teamwork. The 41-year-old actress shone onstage singing in the musical comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. But she couldn't have done it without a little help from a pro.
In the film, Rachel portrays singer Sigrit Ericksdóttir who performs alongside fellow singer Lars Erickssong (Will Ferrell) in their band Fire Saga. The duo lands the opportunity to represent Sweden in a contest inspired after the popular real-life international singing competition of the same name. Their ups and downs culminate in Sigrit belting out an ode to their hometown titled “Húsavík” which includes Icelandic lyrics.
After watching the movie, viewers couldn’t help but wonder: Is that actually Rachel McAdams singing in the movie? Well, the actress actually did do her own singing, but only parts of it made it into the final cut. Swedish singer Molly Sandén, who also goes by My Marianne, took the lead in vocals.
"I was singing all the songs, and then David would lift bits of my performance. The bulk of the music was done by a Swedish singer, Molly Sandén. Our voices were quite similar," Rachel told The A.V. Club. "They did some fancy stuff in the studio and pulled it together that way, and then I sing the song that my character is composing.”
Despite this, Rachel was committed to nailing the Icelandic accent and “watched everything” she possibly could of singer-actress Björk. To assure that Rachel didn't look like she was lip-synching, she didn't. The actress got behind the microphone and sang on her own, even going hoarse at one point. In the end, Molly's professional singing was effortlessly layered over Rachel's performance. (Skip to 1:45 below to watch the them side-by-side!)
As for Molly, she felt right at home lending her voice for Eurovision Song Contest. Back in 2006, she represented Sweden in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, finishing third.
“I was so happy when I was approached with this,” Molly said in the above clip. “It felt like my 12-year-old self would have jumped up and down screaming as [if] she had won ESC just by getting asked to do this and sing these songs.”
It sounds like it was a win-win for everyone!
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