How do you follow an act like Daði og Gagnamagnið? Well Iceland will let us know through Söngvakeppnin 2022 — its Eurovision 2022 national final.
Speaking to Weekend Edition on K100, beloved projected manager Rúnar Freyr Gíslason confirmed the dates of Iceland’s annual song festival.
Söngvakeppnin 2022: Iceland sets dates for national final
Semi-Final 1: February 19, 2022
Semi-Final 2: February 26, 2022
Grand Final: March 5, 2022
Rúnar, who famously wore hot pants on the Eurovision 2006 stage alongside Siliva Night, also told the radio that this edition of Söngvakeppnin attracted 160 songs. That makes it one of the more competitive editions of recent years in terms of application numbers.
“The selection committee has a lot of work to do and we’ve now started that work,” he said.
The selection committee includes members of the broadcaster, representatives from the Association of Icelandic Musicians, and members of the Association of Composers and Lyricists.
“These are professionals who listen to all these songs and give them grades and then return them to our executives who are struggling with this,” he said.
He said that the committee focuses on the quality of submissions, while RUV also considers factors like diversity, gender equality and what makes for good TV.
As we previously reported, the managers of Söngvakeppnin place emphasis on diversity, and say they encourage musicians and songwriters from every music genre to submit an entry. All in all, ten songs will compete.
Since 2016, RÚV has invited one or more artists with a strong connection to Eurovision to perform in the grand final. For 2022, RÚV plans to treat the audience with at least one non-Icelandic Eurovision artist as an interval act. Among the past guests are Måns Zelmerlöw, Loreen, 2018’s second-place act Eleni Foureira and 2019’s televote winners Keiino.
The lucky ten songs selected for Söngvakeppnin 2022 will be revealed in January next year, along with further details about the format.
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Iceland is the only Nordic country to have yet to win Eurovision. If they send in a quality act like Of Monsters and Men, Sigur Ros, Almyrkvi, or Astro next year, they of course CAN win and change Iceland in Eurovision forever.
At this point in time, Iceland is still the only Nordic country that hasn’t won Eurovision yet. Let’s hope 2022 can change that.
To be fair they have been good before 2019, and in my view were robbed in 1999.
They could win 1999, yeah. But their recent entries, I personally hated them. I feel like they were over rated. Probably got tons of votes in 2021 just because of the Fire Saga movie.
someone finally said it. Iceland’s entries have been trash and people are just hyping them for being “quirky”. (same for lithuania). i cant even remember the 2021 entry, just hype because its dadi. Their peak was yohanna and realistically they’ll never have a better entry so if dadi won it would have been so unfair. they only deserved it in 2009
Iceland should have won in 1999 in my opinion, but that’s all in the past. Let’s hope a winner can emerge from Songvakeppnin 2022.
Give us another banger! If they keep up sending good stuff like they did since 2019 it’s gonna get better and better for them
2019 wasn’t about music, it was pure provocation. The screaming guy went out of tempo in the final and the “singing” guy sounded like a dying cat every single time he opened his mouth. Their 2019 act was trash that got attention only because of their provocations and trolling.
Yeah, Hatrid mun sigra is not for everyone. It’s not bad for me though
Wasn’t my cup of tea, either.
FACTS
I wish Iceland good luck and I hope they can choose 10 awesome songs to choose some for your vision. I want the Icelandic public to be spoiled for choice. Let’s hope they pick the song that could not only get them another top 10 position, but maybe even win the whole shebang. Good luck Iceland.