Iceland: All Söngvakeppnin 2022 shows rescheduled for one week later

Iceland: All Söngvakeppnin 2022 shows rescheduled for one week later
Thursday, 13 January 2022

  • The Icelandic national broadcaster, RÚV, has rescheduled for one week later all the shows of Söngvakeppnin 2022, the national selection format to determine the country's Eurovision representative.  

    Slight change of plans for the Eurovision 2022 Icelandic national selection, Söngvakeppnin 2022, which will takes place in new dates confimred by RÚV. 

    The Managing director of the competition, Rúnar Freyr Gíslason, explains: 

    "Of course, this is not an easy decision, we realize that this affects a lot of people, employees and competitors. However, we believe it is important to work. With this, we hope that the competition will be able to speak in a natural way, with spectators in the hall. These events have been very popular in recent years, sold out at most competitions and it has done a lot for spectators both at home and locally. As everyone knows, there is no room for complacency in these matters rather than others, but we hope for the best. In this situation, of course, anything can happen, but we are moving forward unscathed and we are actually going to bring this people a joyous bomb that is a competition. We are now working hard to ensure the safety of both spectators and competitors."

    And adds saying: 

    "Activation vaccinations for adults and vaccinations for children are now in full swing and every day is important. We follow the strictest requirements for infection control during exercises and recordings these days to reduce the risk of infection and their spread." 

    According to the new timeline the Söngvakeppnin 2022 shows will unfold according to the following schedule: 

     

    February 26: First semi-final

    March 5: Second semi-final

    March 11: Family show (judge flow)

    March 12: Final night

     

    A total of ten songs will take part in the competition this year. 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. 

    Preparations are in full swing, the authors have submitted recordings and rehearsals for the scenes have begun. The songs, their authors and performers will be presented in the TV show Lögin í Söngvakeppninn on RÚV on Saturday 5 February. As a direct follow-up, they will be released on major music channels.

     

    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: RUV

    Image: RUV