Tonight saw the second and last semi-final of Iceland’s national selection “Songvakeppnin” take place. Another six artists took to the stage in Laugardalshöllin, the indoor sporting arena located in the capital city of Reykjavik. The final three qualifiers were chosen to compete in the Grand Final of Songvakeppnin.
The three qualifiers were decided by a 50/50 combination of televote and professional jury vote. As per the regulations of the national selection, each artist is required to perform in Icelandic during the semi-finals. If they are successful in qualifying for the grand final, they then get to decide the language they wish to perform in, either English or Icelandic. Therefore, in the grand final the artists will perform in the language they wish to sing in at Eurovision, should they win the ticket to Kyiv.
The results of the semi-final were as follows (qualifiers in bold):
Linda Hartmanns – “Ástfangin”
Daði Freyr Pétursson – “Hvað með það?”
Svala Björgvinsdóttir – “Ég veit það”
Páll Rósinkranz & Kristina Bærendsen – “Þú og ég”
Sólveig Ásgeirsdóttir – “Treystu á mig”
Aron Brink – “Þú hefur dáleitt mig”
As well as the three qualifiers, the jury picked one wildcard entry to progress to the final across the semi-finals. This was Hildur and”Bammbaramm”. Therefore, the line up for the Songvakeppnin Grand Final is as follows:
Arnar Jónsson & Rakel Pálsdótir – “Til mín”
Rúnar Eff Rúnarsson – “Mér við hlið”
Aron Hannes Emilsson – “Nótt”
Daði Freyr Pétursson – “Hvað með það?”
Svala Björgvinsdóttir – “Ég veit það”
Aron Brink – “Þú hefur dáleitt mig”
Hildur – “Bammbaramm”
The grand final of the competition will take place next Saturday 11th March where Iceland’s Eurovision 2017 representative will be chosen to represent the country in Kyiv.
Songvakeppnin: The Icelandic National Selection
Since their debut in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1986, Iceland have chosen their representative through “Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins”, but now known more commonly as “Söngvakeppnin” since 2013. However, between 1995-1997, 1999 and 2004-2005 Iceland used an internal selection to select its Eurovision representative. Since the change in name to “Söngvakeppnin” in 2013, Icelandic broadcaster RÚV introduced the two semi-final final format. The majority of finals and semi-finals have been held in the Reykjavik RÚV Studios, whereas more recently the finals of the competition have been held in the Reykjavik “Harpa” and “Háskólabíó” arenas.
Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest
Iceland debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1986 and has participated annually every year since. The contest is incredibly popular in Iceland, regularly being one of the most watched programmes of the year. Iceland has yet to win the contest to date, but has finished 2nd twice in the contest. In 1999 Selma missed out on victory in Jerusalem by 17 points. In 2009 Yohanna became the most successful Icelandic entrant ever finishing 2nd in the final with the song “Is it True?” she scored 218 points, this however was still 169 points behind the winners Norway.
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