Whoever says life stops at 40 has obviously never met Selma Björnsdóttir. The Icelandic singer, who placed second at Eurovision 1999 with “All Out of Luck”, recently celebrated her 40th—and she did so with some major style. She threw a huge party, where the créme de la créme of Iceland’s music and theater scene partied hard with the birthday girl.
She has a lot to celebrate. Following her divorce with actor husband Rúnar Freyr Gíslason, happiness has once again knocked on her door, in the form of the Icelandic opera singer Elmar Gilbertsson. He lives and works in the Netherlands, and has also sung in France and the United Kingdom, but naturally he flew back home to wish his love a happy, happy birthday.
Selma’s break up with her ex came as a shock, as they had been going strong since Selma’s ESC debut in Jerusalem in 1999. As you’ll recall, she fought a bitter battle with Sweden’s Charlotte Nilson, later Perrelli, who edged her out for the win. She’s been a household name in her native Iceland ever since.
Her ex-Rúnar is not a stranger to Eurovision either. Many will recognize him as one of Silvia Night’s raunchy backup dancers, flaunting his thighs in tiny silver shorts. But after a decade of marriage and two children, the couple said goodbye to each other. (Maybe it was the shorts?). Since then, Selma has been somewhat off the radar, but did deliver an extremely successful Eurovision montage show along with Euroband’s Friðrik Ómar and Regína last year.
In any event, congratulations on your hot new beau, Selma. And happy birthday from wiwibloggs. We are so glad you took the lyrics of your song to heart: “To get through a heartache, just picture a spring day, And play in the bright daylight a while, So give it a chance – you won’t regret it!”
I am glad to read something about Selma 🙂 Thanks, Wiwibloggs 🙂
I also hope she will come back to ESC, with great song, like she did in two previous times.
She had good entries – I dare say the one in 2005 was even better. However, 2005 was an amazing year with too many good songs. Everything came to taste at the end.