Daði og Gagnamagnið will represent Iceland at Eurovision 2021. Daði Freyr — the group’s frontman — broke the news on social media on Friday 23 October.
Daði og Gagnamagnið to represent Iceland at Eurovision 2021
“Eurovision 2021!”, wrote Daði on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. “I’m coming back next year and Gagnamagnið is joining me! So I guess I’m writing another Eurovision song”.
He ends the statement by sharing a link to some newly-released “Think About Things” remixes.
Eurovision 2021!
?I’m coming back next year and Gagnamagnið is joining me!
So I guess I’m writing another Eurovision song.
Also closing the Think About Things chapter of my life with some remixes released today:https://t.co/SZ6X8IY1ub
Thank you for all the support! pic.twitter.com/ovbxqCjfTp— Daði Freyr ? (@dadimakesmusic) October 23, 2020
Broadcaster RUV promptly followed up with a press release of its own.
Program director Skarphéðinn Guðmundsson expressed his pleasure that Daði would get a second shot at being Iceland’s representative. “Daði won Söngvakeppnin 2020 with excellence and the reception of the Icelandic contribution has never been so good”, he says “We are therefore very happy and proud to be able to send this great musician and his people out as was intended last time”.
Skarphéðinn goes on to add that it was not a clear cut decision. Many factors had to be considered. However, after much thought, the delegation decided that internally selecting the Gagnamagnið was the right thing to do. “Not least in light of the unprecedented situation that arose this year that no Eurovision Song Contest has been held for the first time in history. We thought it was both right and fair. ”
The reselection of Daði og Gagnamagnið for Eurovision 2021
Daði Freyr and his group Gagnamagnið won Iceland’s national final Söngvakeppnin 2020 with their popular song “Think About Things”. They were due to head to Eurovision 2020 in Rotterdam before the contest was sadly cancelled.
The announcement of their reselection comes after a summer of speculation. On numerous occasions, Daði had said that he would be happy to go to Eurovision 2021 but only if selected through an internal selection. He told a German newspaper that “The only way we’ll be going is if they send us straight to Eurovision. […] I want to compete, but it’s just so much work to do the Icelandic competition, and at this point, it doesn’t really make sense for me to do that whole thing again. If we can go straight to Eurovision, we can focus on that the whole time instead of having to split the focus.”
Fans had also noticed that Daði’s upcoming European tour does not have any dates booked in May 2021, suggesting he could be keeping the month free for Eurovision.
Despite the obvious eagerness from the UK Top 40 hitmaker, Icelandic broadcaster RUV wasn’t always forthcoming on what it planned to do next. As recently as 18 October, Iceland’s Head Of Delegation Felix Bergsson had said that a final decision was yet to be made.
RUV statement on selecting Daði og Gagnamagnið for Eurovision 2021
RUV’s full statement reads as follows:
The musician Daði Freyr Pétursson will represent Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam in May. RÚV contacted Daði Freyr who agreed to compose a song for the competition.
The song Think About Things with Daði and Gagnamagnið won Söngvakeppnin 2020, but due to COVID-19, Eurovision, which was to take place in Rotterdam, was cancelled. The song had a big success, however, but as of this writing it has been played almost 55 million times on Spotify. The song won the audience vote in many European countries, including all the other Nordic countries.
The only right thing in the situation
Skarphéðinn Guðmundsson, RÚV’s program director, is pleased that Daði Freyr has accepted the invitation to participate again. “Daði won Söngvakeppnin 2020 with excellence and the reception of the Icelandic contribution has never been so good. We are therefore very happy and proud to be able to send this great musician and his people out as intended last time. Of course, many things had to be considered when this decision was made, but after much deliberation, we felt this was the only right thing to do, not least in light of the unprecedented situation that arose this year that no Eurovision Song Contest was held for the first time in history. We thought it was both right and fair, “says Skarphéðinn and adds:” We believe that the nation strongly wants Daði and Gagnamagnið to compete on our behalf in this competition.
Most fun to win
Daði Freyr is very excited to be on the Eurovision stage: “I am very excited about this. The reason why I competed in Söngvakeppnin 2020 was to try to go with Gagnamagnið to experience Eurovision from the inside. We always aimed to see how far we could get in the race and it will be the same next year. The entire Gagnamagnið team will be included. The main thing in this is that it will be fun, but I think it would of course be most fun to win. Now I just hope that there will be a real competition, “he says. But has he composed the song? “I have come up with some ideas about the song, but nothing has been decided. I actually know what the music video will be like and have some key points that need to be made in the staging, so I will compose the song around it. I will try to compose a song that fits the scene but not the other way around, Eurovision is something special. But this will be a happy song, it is quite clear! “
Great music program in preparation
It is therefore clear that there will be no Söngvakeppnin next year. The competition has been one of the biggest TV events in the country in recent years, but Skarphéðinn asks fans of the competition not to panic. “Of course we will have a strong music program in February and March, at the time when Söngvakeppnin would have taken place and that program will to some extent be related to Söngvakeppnin and Eurovision,” he says. Preparations have already begun for a successful program where music and entertainment will be paramount.
The Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Rotterdam on May 18, 20 and 22, 2021.
I expect them to do well, but not crazy well. They’re winners of ESC2020 for me though. Lena came back with great song and ended up at 10th or so place.
But Lena had the disadvantage of being a host entry, which Dadi and the Data won’t be encumbered with.
Congratulations Dadi! We can’t wait to see you at Eurovision 2021!
I wonder if we’re going to get more of these announcements in the coming days for more artists returning or more concrete plans for countries doing national finals.
I think Serbia and Russia are the only countries with famous 2020 acts who are yet to confirm whether they’re keeping them or not
Serbia was supposed to report last month their Eurovision plans whether they’ll keep Hurricane for 2021 or do Beovijia again, but nothing’s happened so far. I also looked up when the submission window opened for Beovijia last year, and it was between August 31 and December 8. Technically, this should be the submission period, but I’ve seen no articles of the Serbian broadcaster asking for submissions. So it could be likely that Hurricane might be internally selected, but we’ll have to see. I made a long-winded comment about this deeper in this comment section, but basically I noticed a difference… Read more »
Had it not been for Iceland, I think The Roop could’ve been internally selected, but with Dadi stealing a lot of their fire, the appeal of automatically choosing them might’ve dimmed, especially considering how celebrated the Lithuanian NF was.
Good for them and most likely good for Iceland.
Boys and girls around the world, let’s meet next year in Iceland.
So congratulations, they have arrived.
They’re Daði og Gagnamagnið and they’re shining so bright.
Eurovision nation, your dream’s coming true.
You’ve been waiting forever for them to save you.
Wham bam boom!
Congratulation! Still waiting for The Roop, Athena, Arilena Ara, Little Big, Ben Dolic, James Newman, Ben&Tan, Aksel
The Roop, Arilena Ara and Aksel may win their respective national finals, but only if they apply. They won’t be chosen internally. Ben Dolic is applying to be re-chosen, but it’s not a done deal. Ben & Tan are no more a duo and they said they won’t be entering DMGP this year. Athena, James and Little Big are still a possibilty, but nothing is said either way. UK isn’t even officially in just yet. I hope they confirm soon.
Thanks Colin, I knew about all these artists, I just wrote my wish haha,.even though, I did not know about spliting of Ben and Tan 🙁 i think the other 8 artists will be internally selected as well – Athena, James Newman, Lesley, Alicja, Little Big, Vasil, Hurricaine and Natalia Gordienko)
1) Also Diodato if he chooses to apply again, same with Uku Suviste but he has already been given an automatic NF slot.
3) Huh, but they still released Summer Nights as a duo… they probably split rightafter
5) BBC will apply. Why wouldn’t they.
The Albanian broadcaster has already confirmed that Arilena wouldn’t be back for 2021, Ben and Tan also confirmed they would separate from each other, they were just put together for the Grand Prix.
Its sad …but thanks 🙂
1) That doesn’t mean Arilena cannot reapply to Festivali i Kenges unless it’s in their rules to not allow winners for two years in a row.
2) Didn’t hear about Ben and Tan deciding to reapply together or separately at all. They’re just not going to, I think. (But when they were put together by Grand Prix, why did they still do a song together? lol)
UK has done every year since 1959, the longest continuous streak of any country by miles.
THE BEST NEWS I´VE GOT THIS YEAR! 2021 IS GOING TO BE A GREAT YEAR.
My requests and gifts to the magical Icelandic elves worked!! Go Dadi!!
I can’t help but think that RUV internally selecting him is mainly due to pressure from the Eurofans. Surely if RUV had gone with the national selection there would have been massive outrage from the Eurofans. Also the popularity of Think About Things is not a good reason to select him again in my mind because there is no guarantee his next song will be just like that.
I’m happy. A different situation to Italy. I hope their tour will be able to happen.
I’m disappointed…Hope Iceland will deliver something good in 2022 because 2021 is already lost 🙁
No need to use crystal ball…just listen to his Eurovision entry or look at that picture with him and bunch of strange people… It can’t be good….
Come on Jakub, maybe this time he’ll deliver a song you’ll genuinely not mind
Good call.
Lightning rarely strikes the same place twice, and I doubt their new song can repeat the success of “Think About Things”, but they still managed to garner a lot of hype over the 2020 season and it could give them an edge in 2021.
An Icelandic victory is long overdue, maybe 2021 will be their year.
Tbh, I think that “Think about things” is kinda overrated by the fandom but it’s great to know he is back. He was their best chance to win. Now let’s hope that: Alcija (even tho it’s almost official), Athena, Hurricane and Little big will come back (James, Lesley and Vasil deserve to come back as well but I won’t be that sad in case they’re not).
I am happy but i swear i ll never go to the comment section when his song will be released cause 99% of people will be comparing with last year.
Being politically correct I could say Oh yes. I’m happy. Most of the comments here express this kind of feeling.
But I still support the idea that the songs should pass through strong selections.
I hope Dadi has a huge creativity and delights us with another hit, but even for the super music stars, with o lot of songwriters composing for them, is very difficult to have super hits each year.
Well, Duncan did it with his song ‘Love don’t hate it’.
I think a creative person like Daði will do great things.
And I ll be happy for him and Iceland.
We need good songs in the show.
Hope it will not be a copy and paste song.
Well I don’t think he’ll really be doing a strictly copy/paste song… maybe with a similar message BUT not a very samey song
Iceland showing a lot of countries how it should’ve been done.
Not really, just loss of income for upcoming artists that maybe want to get some of the spotlight in Europe after these hard times, but hey, fun for them to get to represent their country again…
This is the news I needed to hear today. Daði is an accomplished songwriter and whatever he brings to Rotterdam will be amazing.
Well, we all know that very few artists do spectacular come-backs to Eurovision. Dadi’s song was overrated plus it was a big hype on it because it was fresh and new. After one year it won’t be anything surprising for the Eurovision fans. Dadi has to prepare completely new song concept and presentation.
But still The Roop and Little Big seem to have more chances to win.
Therefore it was a good decision not to take this year’s songs to next year because they would sound dated.
As much as I love Chains On You and Think About Things, Athena and Dadi, who write their own songs, will get bored after a while. They can’t just live off one song, even though their (current) niches are ace.
I won’t be surprised if he reuses the silly dance.
Well he might come up with another dance, but if his Songvakeppnin performances are to be believed, one thing he will reuse is the sweaters xD
We need the ROOP in ESC 2021 too
Whatever they? come up with with I hope fans stop comparing it with Think About Things, cause we know that will involuntarily happen.
Personally I just want another pop banger from them,,
Comparisons will inevitably happen, but I just hope they don’t overshadow all the effort the returning artists will put into creating their new songs. I am really interested in how many of them will keep in the same genre / style / tempo of 2020 and how many of them will change it. So far, we have only clues for Natalia, who will apparently go in a different direction and serve us with an uptempo banger. Jeangu also said his song will be different to Grow, but he didn’t specify in what way.
I can’t believe it!!! This is major news, Dadi was one of the favorites last year and if he takes advantage of the hype around him and writes even a better song, I’m sure we already have a winner alert, but we should wait and see…
Yees!! This is amazing news! Finally they can compete in Eurovision and maybe even win the competition for Iceland. Let’s just hope The Roop will compete in the Lithuanian national final with a great song and that Little Big will represent Russia! Fingers crossed
Great news, congratulations to them!
Hope they come up with another incredible song as Thinking about things was. Good luck and wishing them the best!
I knew it! How could Iceland turn him down?!
Although not my favorite, I hope for an amazing song!!!
Good Luck Iceland
they don’t need luck, they already have my votes now for sure <3
But you have bashed him several times… how is your opinion trustable now?
No surprise, but welcome news! Can’t wait to see what they cook up for next year.
They were one of the acts that I was most desperate to see come back next year! I’m so excited that that they will go to Rotterdam and whilst it may be hard to top Think About Things, if anyone can do it, Dadi is the one to do it. Thank you Iceland!
Dadi the worldclass god, best icelandic artist ever
Congratulations to Dadi. It ‘s fair that he ‘s represents his country again in 2021. I hope for a great song. Good Luck in advance !!
Brilliant news, though I Am wary of how Think About things can Be surpassed or sidestepped, given the niche of Dadi &co’s Ace covers And the specificity of Think About Thing’s relateability. I hope that the fans can have a role in what his song is, and that Will Ferrell can Be in the music video. Now over to you AMPTV…
Reykjavik 2022! <3
You can already book a ticket
Here we come 2021! And most certainly in 2022 also.
Congrats, Dadi og Gagnamagnid! I have a hunch that their next song might be entertaining as well. Considering how good Think About Things was received, this might be a prudent thing to do in order to assure you get a potential winner buzz from the get-go. I hope that Songvakeppnin will return in 2022.
Your move, Russia and Lithuania…
Lithuania already confirmed Pabandom is Naujo for 2021 but said The Roop would get an automatic place in the final if they wanted it.
But that was months ago. Things might have changed since then.
Why are you booing Badwoolfgirl? She’s right.
Either LRT have no plans or their plans to start the NF submission period are always that late.
It’s been about six months since LRT announced their NF plans, but it has been radio silence lately. I’m not joking, I’ve tried to research articles if there has been any more developments, but there has been nothing reported new past March 31, when LRT made the announcement about having their national final in 2021. As of this posting, there have been no public announcements on a submission period or even dates for Pabandom Iš Naujo 2021. Last year, according to some articles I found, the submission period for the 2020 Lithuanian NF was September 30 to December 8, 2019,… Read more »
Russia might have Zivert, not Little Big but there is still hope it is Little Big
Zivert would be a much smarter choice. Russia will always have huge televote support, so sending a more jury friendly act would be a good strategy.
amazing news, WINNER
so despite esc2020 being cancelled, Iceland will have its win after all <3
Thank you Nicky so much <3 I do hope so.
Considering your past attitude on these comment sections, it’s not hard to see why your comments are mass disliked here…
Yaaaaaaaaassss
🙂 We see you in NL 🙂