On Saturday, Hera Björk was crowned as the Söngvakeppnin 2024 champion. But in the 48 hours since then, the Icelandic singer’s victory has been marred by accusations of voting error.
Einar Stefánsson, the co-writer of Bashar Murad’s “Wild West”, which finished second in the contest, is now calling for an independent review into the voting.
RÚV has admitted there was an error in part of the voting, but stated this did not affect the overall outcome.
Söngvakeppnin 2024 voting error
During the Söngvakeppnin 2024 grand final, the public could vote by two methods — SMS text message, or phone call. National broadcaster RÚV also added voting information into a mobile app, where clicking the number of a certain act would automatically create an SMS message in the person’s phone that was directed towards the act of their choosing.
However, videos began emerging on social media of faults in this system.
This showed an individual attempting to vote for Bashar Murad through the app. However, the system set up an SMS message that was actually directed towards Hera Björk’s voting number instead.
Other social media posts have also indicated that Murad’s call-in number was blocked or marked as spam in some instances, whereas all other numbers were fine.
Following this voting error, Einar Stefánsson is requesting an independent review into the contest’s results. He argues it would be wrong for RÚV to only conduct an internal investigation:
“It is highly unusual for RÚV to believe that the organization can carry out an internal investigation on this matter, and therefore an independent investigation is needed to ensure the trust and reputation of Söngvakeppnin. At the same time, it is not at all clear how it is possible to assess whether a vote that went like this did not affect the result.”
RÚV has so far not responded directly to Einar’s request, but the broadcaster has admitted that an error occurred in the SMS votes during the superfinal between Hera and Bashar. This affected both participants and so neither received the SMS votes they were due from the app.
The organisers go on to state that the number of SMS votes was notably smaller compared to those cast via phone call. As a result, removing the SMS votes would not have changed the overall outcome of the contest.
Bashar Murad won the first round of grand final voting
As is custom, RÚV has revealed the full breakdown of voting from the Söngvakeppnin 2024 grand final.
This shows that during the first round of voting, Bashar Murad topped both the jury and public vote. He had more than a 15,000 vote lead over second place Hera Björk, who initially finished second with the jury and third with the public.
But things changed during the superfinal, where the first round votes were combined with another round of public-only voting. Hera picked up close to 19,000 more votes than Bashar during this second round, allowing her to squeeze ahead and clinch the victory.
First round
| Artist | Jury votes | Public votes | Total | Place |
| Væb | 13,656 | 15,727 | 29,383 | 4 |
| Hera Björk | 16,661 | 15,406 | 32,067 | 2 |
| Anita | 14,476 | 10,124 | 24,600 | 5 |
| Bashar Murad | 21,304 | 26,359 | 47,663 | 1 |
| Sigga Ózk | 16,114 | 14,595 | 30,709 | 3 |
Superfinal
| Artist | Round 1 | Round 2 | Total | Place |
| Hera Björk | 32,067 | 68,768 | 100,835 | 1 |
| Bashar Murad | 47,663 | 49,832 | 97,495 | 2 |
This isn’t the first time the Söngvakeppnin result has changed following the superfinal.
Over the past ten editions of the show, only five contestants have retained their first round lead at the end of the second voting period. In 2015, 2016, 2018, 2022, and now 2024, the winner of the first round has ultimately finished the night as the runner-up after the superfinal.
Although the superfinal can provide an interesting TV moment, some fans have suggested it might not be the best way to select an act. Having a second round of voting allows people to change their mind, something viewers can’t do at Eurovision — it’s all on first impressions. Additionally, having only two acts in the superfinal means you can easily vote against a contestant as much as you can vote for one — which again is not possible at Eurovision because viewers can only vote for their favourites out of 26 in the final.
What are your thoughts on the situation? Should the Söngvakeppnin 2024 voting results be looked into with more scrutiny? And do you think superfinals are good or bad additions to selections? Let us know in the comments below.
Looks like this co-writer is a big loser 🙂
Anyway, i think the superfinal idea is stupid when the final is only among 5 songs.
By the way, it’s funny how there are more televotes in Iceland than Spain’s Benidorm!
This comment section is pure cancer
Ok… I see from the comments below that fans preferred Björk over Bashar… I guess I will never understand this attraction of ESC fans to female “divas” even if the songs are meh to crap… (meh in this case), even if if this means that a new country could have won. You can downgrade as much as you want, but Wild Wild West will remain in my Eurovision playlist this year and possibly in my summer 2024 bops and nobody is going to take this enjoyment from me!
They only love them until something shinier and newer comes along..
I see it as Blankiflur’s revenge. 😛
His song got attention and votes mostly because of politics, he should be more careful before he opens his mouth.
boohoo cry me more
Israel:
https://eurovisionfun.com/en/2024/03/israel-ebu-takes-into-account-new-threats-against-kan/
….drama!! What a sh** show!!
No democracy, no public broadcaster independence…NO EUROVISION!! Out…
Shlomo talks a lot but does little to nothing, I wouldn’t overreact like that…
It’s just popular among his supporters to go against KAN but he wouldn’t do anything…
Trying to manipulate a public broadcaster is indeed serious…but i did not know that it was “normal”… insane!!
I didn’t mean it’s normal, I meant it’s just all words in the air…
No one’s doing anything
They talk about it fir years and yet no one did something… you can relax now.. everything is ok
Quite the opposite… but okay!
In my country there is also a political government party who wants to close public broadcasters, including the one who does Eurovision.. No problem, until it actually happens.
See That’s a fuc*** up way of think…cause if the main reason is to control the media and what goes public or not…does not matter if it isn’t the reality yet…cause it means that on that specific country that gorvenament is always trying to do that!!! That’s a huge NO! And should be…
Btw, why are you screaming over nothing, Elfin?
Not only his song was crap and got to the super final only because of politics, now he is being a sore loser as well! Not surprised considering his past behavior. You lost. Get over it.
Stop bashing Bashar…it’s the writer not him…
He also spoke about it
It’s not the first time a song finishing 2nd in the first round of the final has triumphed in the superfinal. Just sour grapes.
Here are the three main findings of inquiry:
1) A singer from the middle east singing of the wild west while representing Iceland is too much to take in for some televoters
2) His costume looked cheap and the heart appliqué has been done before at Eurovision
3) Not speaking in the language of your televoters in your national final is a bad idea, as it was to admit that singing in that language (in the semi) was a challenge
It does look like (numerically ) Hera gained votes from those who previously voted for the three non-superfinal contenders, as Bashir got about the same number of votes in the superfinal as he did in the first round. That is, Hera gained, Bashir maintained. It is a NF so it seems fine (if not a bit convoluted) to allow the national public fine-tune what they want at ESC (minus/diluting the jury opinion). No harm to have a quick external review to calm the [no doubt] spiel we’ll all have to endure and close the query. And again, I didn’t love… Read more »
Bashar (sorry… Autocorrect keeps changing it)
I think it’s a scandal that Bashar didn’t make it. One of the bests songs of the entire pre-selection season and would have brought another great results to Iceland, if not a long due victory! I hope they get to the bottom of this and ideally repeat the vote
I really hope that humans of the future learn to not scandalize everything online. It’s not black and white all the time. Honestly, his song is quite catchy and I start to really like it more and more. Yet, to me it was not the best song and presentation of the night – Sigga it was for me. She didn’t make it and that’s fine. All voting systems have flaws and so does this one. In the end they chose to send Hera Björk again, why not? Bashar had for sure one of the biggest moments of his career so… Read more »
I hope so because he deserves it.
If there is a superfinal it should at least be three songs so that people vote FOR a song and not in pratice AGAINST one.
Superfinal is a stupid idea. Most people don’t vote for their favourite, the want to prevent the other artist.
I am not pro or against superfinals. It is indeed a special voting where the unknown factor is how the fans of the eliminated songs vote.
Sometimes it’s about choosing the lesser evil.
I don’t think any songs are evil lol
So you guys made articles so quickly about the possibility of Israel being out, but nothing when we have rumours and official reports saying everything might be ok?
I’ll do it then – KAN said they decided to rework on the songs (of course, giving the songwriters their artistic freedom) so they comply with the EBU’s rules, despite not agreeing with them regarding the previous versions of the songs.
Both October Rain and Dance Forever will go through this process.
We have rumours saying October Rain might have also changed to Hurricane.
Yes because we don’t care about Israel’s participation or entry
Thats why every post on Israel got more than 500 comments
Also Israel will probably have the only ballad in English this year, I can see why people are threatened.
Latvia and Belgium says hi
You can say “I don’t care” but don’t speak for everyone else.
Sore losers… Sounds just like him though
Sorry not sorry
Try again next time
He lost fair and square and he should accept that but I really don’t see any logical argument for the use of superfinals in general. Why make people vote again???
I see the logic
If we look at the first round with 5 songs, one could look at it and say “majority voted for Bashar”
On the other hand, one could say “majority voted against Bashar and wanted other songs”.
So I guess that’s why they narrow it down to 2 songs and then let people decide which one should go, because then, those arguments become one, if it makes sense.
Good point, super finals don’t work. It’s just a way to get more money through votes
The whole point of the superfinal is that the winner of the first round does not automatically win. Something similar happened with “Turn This Around” and “Með hækkandi sól”. Turn this around won the first round and then all fans of “melodic” songs pooled their votes for Með hækkandi sól.
Please, let it go. No more drama. One has to move on after a result (good or bad), unless they have another agenda. They seem fixated on winning this. I started to feel like they were planning a surprise and a big statement.
Einar and Bashar thought they had this in the bag. They never thought for a second they wouldn’t win, especially when RUV was pushing RUV so much as well. Now that things haven’t worked out as planned, they can’t cope.
Should have read: “… when RUV was pushing Bashar so much as well.”
it happens all the time that the first round’s winner is different from the superfinal’s… he just needs to accept he isn’t representative of iceland in any possible way and that’s why he lost to a national legend with an amazing voice.
True, Netta voted out in the firs round of the israeli finals, the judges give her the second chance.
And we all know the results.
Netta wasn’t voted out… Maybe you think of Kobi Marimi?
He was eliminated and brought back as a wild card
Toli is probably talking about the season final. Netta lost the first round of the final (duel against Ricki), and the juries gave her the wildcard for the second round, which she won.
The same thing happened with Eden Alene, she lost the first round (duel against Orr), then saved (in 2020 it was the viewers who decided who to save) and won the whole thing.
National legend and amazing voice maybe. But the song is awful.
In both cases, people here were voting for the person. Hera because she’s a legend in Iceland, and Bashar for political reasons. The songs themselves are very weak. Talent prevailed in this choice.
Bashar is saltier than the dead sea… boo hoo..
you’ve lost, get over it!
You mean Einar Stefánsson.
Bashar also spoke about it, so both
Sore loser, nobody cares. It’s done and dusted.
The final result has been published on another website. Even if you add up all the non-Bashar votes in the first round, they don’t equal what Hera got. The numbers of votes seem inflated. And then the overall result is only around 3,000 or so in it. Also, the juries were somehow big fans of her. I refuse to believe Hera got this amount of support AND jury love when her song was expected to do badly in the odds and no fans were talking about it. Sigga, Vaeb and Anita were all more popular prior to the contest with… Read more »
I would assume that the votes for Anita and Sigga went to Hera since their songs are all in a similar style. It’s really not that surprising.
That makes sense.
The result is pretty close. Personally I don’t think any irregularities happened but it’s good to have an independent review to confirm it.
Regardless, Iceland–as well as San Marino–are two countries that acts from all over the world can try out to bring their message to the world now. I think it’s pretty cool. Just like Joost said, it’s a world without borders.
Meanwhile Czech NF had discrepancies by tens of thousands votes in both parts of televote and no official has yet batted an eyelid over the results.
It’s really starting to feel that RUV are the villains of NF season 2014. Parachuting an act with no links to Iceland into their NF with the hope of lots of sympathy votes, which would carry through to Malmö and maybe Iceland’s first ever win. As much as RUV pushed Bashar, the people of Iceland wanted someone else to go to Eurovision. Since RUV didn’t get their way, rumours of irregularities are now emerging, so perhaps that’ll force a rerun of the final or Hera stepping aside so they can send their man. I bet RUV is hoping for a… Read more »
Conspiracy theories, nothing more. RUV already declined a re-voting.
Sadly for RUV**
Bring back the edit function!
A delete function or proper moderation would be a better idea.
Bashar performed better and had a better song. He was the overwhelming favourite.
Favourites don’t always win. It doesn’t matter if you’re taking sport or Eurovision, plenty of favourites don’t make it over the line.
It is hard to predict the winner in a population of below 400.000.
I just saw Bashars post on twitter about how the superfinal needs to go… boi just go cry in the corner. You lost get over it. I love when someone doesn’t like a democratic result, democracy doesn’t suit them anymore. Right… I remember some horrible American orange man doing the same thing, remember how that turned out?
“Democracy is cringe, read some Aristotle.” -John Doyle.
I mean, it has its flaws though
Exactly.
If he indeed had an issue with the superfinal – and that is a fine opinion to have – then he should have said something BEFORE he lost.
Now it just sounds like sour grapes.
I totally agree. I feel the same about the furore last year over Käärija. You can’t complain about the rules after you’ve agreed to take part under them.
If Hera declines to go and gets replaced I think some greasy oil money exchanged hands
I said this would happen the night of the result when he lost. I got downvoted but I wasn’t wrong.
I said they’d stage something to try and reverse the victory.
The backstage stooges really want their political card to win. They can’t overturn it the results clearly state he lost. That’s the format YOU LOST
Someone is so desperate to send this political puppet to Eurovision… Just because Bashar won the first round, doesn’t mean he won the superfinal. People had to pick between a political act or their native artist. The choice is pretty obvious, we are talking about ICELAND here, a tiny homogenous, neutral country.
Hera had a terrible song, I’m sorry. Sigga would have been better.
I liked Blankiflur, Væb and CeaseTone better too but it is what it is xd
I agree, but hey… it is what it is
It’s time to move on. If indeed RUV was trying to make a point by giving Bashar a place then it’s been made. To me refusing to perform if Israel is in Malmö is an empty gesture and will change nobody’s mind.
Iceland wants to be Ukraine
Such a dumb comparison, insensitive too.
It’s irrelevant that he won the first round. And obvious that people who voted for the other three acts then got behind her. I’m sad that Sigga didn’t make it but good for Hera.
But why Hera instead of Sigga, Vaeb or Anita? That’s what I can’t wrap my head around.
I said this somewhere else, but what a surprise that people jumped on a (conspiracy) bandwagon for political messaging that they liked… NOT. People need to get of their (social media) bubbles it’s getting kinda sad tbh.
get out*
What could they even do in this situation if an error is confirmed? Redo the voting? (a bit too late, and if voting costs money in Iceland people might not want to do it again)
RUV is desperate to send Bashar, so they might just keep finding ways to rerun the voting until they get the result they want…
‘I have a very uncomfortable question for you… Iceland is Palestine?’
Drama!
Yes, of course
*clap* *clap* Okey *clap*
The p@lestinians can go and live there.. it will be perfect…
Einar Stefánsson will fail miserably. I have lost count of the many times winners of the first round in different national selections all over Europe ended up in second place in thd second round of voting. It happens. Those who voted for the third, fourth and fith placed entries had to obviously cast their vote again between 2 other entries they might not have voted for. Hera was the winner. It’s so simple.
If he wants to win so bad, and looks like he’s obsessed with that, he could write a better song perhaps…
Fair point.
They „have“ to?
In that case, hate WILL prevail.
No, reason WILL prevail. The other 3 songs are closer in style to Hera’s than Bashar’s, therefore it is only logical to conclude people would cast a second vote on Hera’s song.
I’m really loving this Icelandic redemption arc, thank heaven Hera won and kudos to her for standing her ground!
On the other hand, Hatari and Bashar stf-u you sore losers!
Hate will prevail.
Your hate.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw these news. Seriously?
Can’t they just stop forcing Bashar’s political victory when people in Iceland don’t want that?
Have respect for Hera and her team as well as for the other participants !
Hera won! Period.
Thanks to Hera, Iceland has now fallen 10 places in the betting odds and will probably fall even lower.
So what? favorites loose national finals every year. She won the competition fair and square
True. 🙂
And now she is everybody’s last place.
Ah the betting odds. What would we do without them and how would we ever form opinions? At least she doesn’t have to be scared of heights anymore and can perform with nothing to lose. She’ll do great.
Not if you die.
Iceland were high just because of the politics of it…
Hera’s victory is also a political victory! An Israeli victory!
Hateful person…
Hera’s victory is only an Icelandic one – the public has spoken.
They dropped odds from top 3 to top 15 so they should be interested to switch the act
Yes, let’s overturn the will of the Icelandic people because the odds say so.
And as soon as we’re done, let’s take the glass microphone from Salvador Sobral and hand it over to Francesco Gabbani. Obviously he was the legitimate winner in 2017. The odds proved it.
*sarcasm off*
Sore loser much?, even Kalush Orchestra didn’t desperate like this.
He lost the second round with the same televote number, that’s mean his song is boring, no one want to vote for him again in the super final, i can see all the pop girl stan of Sigga and Anita vote for Hera, i guess they prefer a pop song over his mid song. I hope he can accept his lose, get over it and comeback with a better song.
Kalish Orchestra also lost their final, complained, and ended up winning the whole contest…
Kalush
I feel bad for Alina Pash. She would be a hero now. Definitely one of the most bitter NF stories ever. It seemed a bit like Kalush and the broadcaster bullied her into submission.
The English rap is still cringey though.
Idk why Ukrainian singers love doing cringey English rap verses
I can’t remember all the details, but I’m sure there was some forged documents somewhere in the story. A sorry tale.
Oh right, I forgot… I remember she was under fire for visiting Crimea which is heinous, but not from her side, heinous from the law. But then the forgery was what did her in, so I guess she brought it on herself in a way.
I mean I want to feel bad for her but she did fake travel documents and initially lied about it. Sure Kalush complained but in the end, it turned out they were right
True, can’t defend faking documents.
Oh here we go…I expected RUV would find a way to make Hera stand aside for Bashar, and here we are.
Honestly, why didn’t RUV just go and internally select Bashar? It would have saved everyone time and money, and he’s the act they wanted anyway.
Yeah admittedly it’s a little strange when they’ve also decided songvakeppnin is no longer the official selection process anymore
they could technically still be like “you know what actually we want him” but at this point that would cause a stir of its own
Iceland 2022 comes to mind ?
lol…good one
Wait are you telling me that everyone who voted for an indigenous Icelandic act in Round 1 then switched their votes to Hera in the Superfinal? Must be some Zionist conspiracy. Maybe they used those Jewish space lasers.
It’s got to be those ‘dancing Israelis’
Einar was just a translator on the Icelandic version, not a composer proper on the song… right?
For the English-language video, Einar is jointly credited with Bashar for the music & lyrics.
Oh thank you, don’t know how I missed such a strong link to Iceland.
It’s easy to overlook. It’s actually at the very bottom of the credits list (for real).
Mattias Tryggvi Haraldsson did the Icelandic translation. Apologies, sir.
*Looks at evidence… sigh.
I guess they’ll all have to sing again then 😛
Or, the broadcaster could just have the power to decide on their own. Oh, wait, they do?! Okay then.
I just listened to his song for the first time and it’s kind of cringe. I don’t know, there was something about it that sounds like those songs kids record for their birthday telling about how cool and special they are. Also he’s not exactly a great singer. So besides being incredibly political (which is forbidden only for Jews I guess), I can’t see the hype. Like, what’s the appeal?
Politics was its appeal. People who don’t even watch Eurovision were wetting themselves over Iceland sending this. Thankfully Hera closed that door and nailed it shut.
Maybe, maybe not. Don’t forget that this contest was totally separatized from selecting Iceland’s entry. Hera won, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they have to pick her for May. Bashar still has an in, technically…
Oh yes they have to if they have any sense of right and wrong. Hera already said she wants to go and won despite all the odds against her and Mr Wild West shamelessly playing the Palestine card on air every chance he got. Her winning in spite of all that is a miracle. It’s her or nobody.
It’ll be nice to see it confirmed.
Please, not Bashar. I wish he were born in another Arab country that doesn’t to propaganda (e.g. Lebanon, Morocco, United Arab Emirates, or Egypt).
No, he doesn’t. According to what RÚV announced a few weeks ago they decided that they will hold Söngvakeppnin and then discuss with the winner about participating in ESC or not. They will not discuss with the runner up or any other participants. So, it’s either Hera or Iceland is out, simple enough.
“Also he’s not exactly a great singer.” now we’ve said it! his accent is unlistenable!
I think most people who wanted Bashar to win voted for him in the first round. Those who didn’t want him to win, voted for one of the other songs.
In the super final most of them voted for Hera (since they didn’t want him to win).
Or maybe they prefer Hera song over his mid song (both are mid song if you ask me)
This is not a great look for Iceland unfortunately
They still have Ja Ja Ding Dong
They want to be Vibdir so bad
I stand by Hatari 2019, musically it was the right choice because it was the only interesting song they had that year. Hera Björk was 2nd then and her song was incredibly boring, no alternative. But this time, Hera winning was the biggest service to the contest anyone will achieve this year. And I never wanna see Hatari ever again in this contest in an capacity. They’ve done quite enough. Nei takk.
No! They must go again! They have more work to be done! Hera will be an instant NQ
She actually came 4th in 2019, I’ve checked it recently
My bad.