Söngvakeppnin (known from 1986–1989 as Söngvakeppni sjónvarpsstöðva and in 1981, 1983 and 1990–2012 as Söngvakeppni sjónvarpsins, literally "The Television's Song Contest") is an annual

music competition A music competition is a public event designed to identify and award outstanding musical ensembles, soloists, composers, conductors and musicologists. Pop music competitions are music competitions which are held to find pop starlets. Exampl ...

organised by

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

ic public broadcaster Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV). It determines the for the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

Format

The contest was first organised in 1981, although neither it nor its subsequent 1983 edition were used to determine any Eurovision Song Contest representatives until Iceland made its ESC debut in 1986. Since then,

RÚV Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV) (pronounced or ) ( en, 'The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service') is Iceland's national public-service broadcasting organization. Operating from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional cent ...

has used Söngvakeppni sjónvarpsins to select the Icelandic entry, but has also used an internal selection at times, between 1995 and 1999 and in 2004, 2005 and 2021. Söngvakeppni sjónvarpsins has consisted of a multi-artist competition, with between 5 and 10 songs competing. Most contests in the past have been a one-night event, however since 2006 the contest has consisted of a number of semi-finals aired before a grand final. It was known for RÚV to change the performers for Eurovision. This can be seen in 1986, when winner Pálmi Gunnarsson was joined by

Eiríkur Hauksson Eiríkur Hauksson (born 4 July 1959, in Reykjavik) is an Icelandic heavy metal vocalist. He represented Iceland at Eurovision in 1986 and in 2007. Career Eiríkur's career as a vocalist began in earnest when the song "Sekur" he wrote and pe ...

and Helga Möller to form

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for Eurovision. In 1994 RÚV were not happy with the winning song, and so enlisted Frank McNamara to rearrange the entry and select a new singer.Icelandic National Final 1994
/ref> Songs in Söngvakeppni sjónvarpsins were once only allowed to be performed in Icelandic. However winning songs were normally translated into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

for Eurovision. This rule was abolished in 2008, when English language songs were allowed to compete for the first time.

Winners

The first 33 winners of Söngvakeppnin have gone on to represent Iceland at the Eurovision Song Contest. Iceland has never won the contest (the only Nordic country never to do so), but they have come second twice: in 1999 (when an internal selection was used), losing to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, and in 2009, when they lost to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. 2020 was the first time in history where the winner of the contest, in this case Daði og Gagnamagnið, did not advance to Eurovision, as the event was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Instead, RÚV internally re-selected Daði og Gagnamagnið to represent the country at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2021 The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 was the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's win at the with the song " Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. The Netherlands was set to host the ...

, with the song also chosen internally. The following table lists entries which finished fifth or higher at Eurovision:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Songvakeppnin Eurovision Song Contest selection events Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest Icelandic music Annual events in Iceland

Format

Winners

See also

References

External links