Iceland: 160 entries submitted for Söngvakeppnin 2022; National final set for March 5

Iceland: 160 entries submitted for Söngvakeppnin 2022; National final set for March 5
Thursday, 14 October 2021

  • The Icelandic national broadcaster has received 160 songs for Söngvakeppnin 2022, the show that will determine the next ESC representative and the final of which will take place on March 5, 2022.  

    With the submission period completed on October 6, 2021, RUV's ESC project manager, Rúnar Freyr Gíslason revealed that they have received 160 songs for Söngvakeppnin 2022 which marks a new record number for the national selection and could easily be justified by this year's successful participation in Rotterdam. 

    Now it's time for the selection committee to review the submitted laws and finally the executive committee will select ten of them for participation this year. Gíslason also revealed that the national selection will consist of two semi finals which will take place on February 19 and 26, with the Grand final set for March 5, 2022. 

    Five acts will compete in each semi final heat with the public voting to determine two qualifiers from each semi final. In addition the jury will choose one more entry to advance to the final show. During the final 50% of public voting and 50% of jury votes will determine which two will qualify to a Superfinal round, in which televoting will decide the final winner and the next Icelandic Eurovision hopeful. 

     

    Iceland in Eurovision 

    The Nordic country, which debuted in Eurovision in 1986, was only absent at two editions of the contest, in 1998 and 2002, and that was due to low rankings that its entries received. It is the only country from the Scandinavic ones not to have won the contest, despite its best results  in 1999 with Selma and in 2009 with Yohana, when the country finished in the 2nd place

    In 2018 Iceland last year was represented by Ari Ólafsson and his entry Our Choice. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it to the grand final which was the consecutive  fourth time the country failed to qualify.In 2019 Söngvakeppnin 2019 winner, the group Hatari flew the flag in Tel Aviv and performed on stage Hatrið mun sigra, which qualified to the final where it came 10th with 232 points.

    This year Daði & Gagnamagnið won the Icelandic national final, Söngvakeppnin 2020, and were set to represent the nation with their entry “Think About Things” . Although the contest was cancelled due to the covid-19 outbreak the Icelandic acts will had the chance to complete their Eurovision journey in 2021 with a new song. 

    In 2021 Daði & Gagnamagnið defended the Icelandic colors in Rotterdam performing '10 Years' which finished in the honorable 4th place of the Grand final.  

    News Source: Eurovoix

    Image: RUV