Maria Olafs may have crashed out of Eurovision 2015, but Iceland is ready to make up for it at Eurovision 2016. Yesterday the national broadcaster RÚV confirmed that it will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm. Iceland joins its Nordic neighbours Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway. Among the other countries that have confirmed are Austria, France, Lithuania, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Ireland, Ukraine, the UK, Hungary, the Netherlands and Belgium.
In recent years there have always been unsettling rumours that Iceland might not participate, due to the expense. And of course there are always nay-sayers, who demand Iceland’s withdrawl from the contest, arguing, “We’ll never win!” But to Eurovision-crazed Icelanders’ delight, RÚV has never taken note from those sore losers or those calling for greater austerity at the broadcaster.
Given that the next contest will take place in nearby Sweden, there should be plenty of happy Icelanders in the house to support Maria’s successor. Roll on 2016!
@Freyah: Has Yohanna given any thought to trying again?
@ESCaddict: Yes; Pollapönk was surprisingly good. So was Eyþór.
Will GusGus give it a shot next year?
well done Iceland, lets not be like easteu/southeu and quit due to “economical reasons” cause we dont make it to the final. välkomna 😀
I’m glad that they’ll be there. I still think Yohanna should have won over Rybak in 2009. But Iceland won’t win, I mean if tradition follows their next best shot at winning is 2019 (as they came second in 1999 and 2009). But I hope they win sometime, because I’d love to go to Reykjavik.
Iceland is the only Scandinavian/ Nordic country I’d be happy winning in Stockholm but I really don’t see it happening. The reason being is as much as I like Icelandic entries, Iceland rarely sends the best song from the NF – Erna Hronn 2013 and 2015 and Stefania 2015 being eliminated in the semis were absolutely atrocious decisions. The entries that they pick are always quite mediocre (2011, 2013, 2014) or quite badly staged/performed (2012,2015). Because I dont see Iceland winning the contest, I really want an eastern country such as Bulgaria, Romania or Hungary to win next year. Russia… Read more »
Pollaponking fantastic!
Deniz@TurkNL
ow thats sad… lets just hope for the best
Is Maria very small in person? She looks tiny.
As much as I love polar lights, Maria Olafs’ performance basically were polar lights on cocaine crack. Terrible.
I hate that Sweden won so many times with so many horrible songs (1984, 1991, 1999, 2015) and Iceland never won at all…. Especially in 1999 I died with this generic ABBA wannabe botox queen snatched Selma’s wig. But Iceland is also to blame for allowing their jurors to completely turn around the will of the voting public and put political affiliate Sweden at the top and destroy Italy’s 12 points, which the public awarded. This is what jurors are for: establish the old world order at Eurovision in favour of Scandinavia. Now that we have jurors, Eurovision power has… Read more »
Ehh, one of my favourite country. I’ve always dreamt of Iceland hosting the Eurovision. It would be so unique. And they really deserve that. They have put so much effort. They were very close to win the contest in 1999 and 2009 (By the way,”Is it true” is one of the greatest song ever, better than “Fairytale”). I’m also very impressed that their music scene is so various and interesting, considering the amount of population. Iceland, stick to your consistency and eventually you will succeed. Maybe you could risk a bit and offer a song in a style Iceland is… Read more »
There is also some news about Croatia. Emilija Koki?, an old Croatian participant, wants to see her country back at eurovision. So maybe they can return next year too.
It always amazes me that such a country with rather small population has so many great artists. I think Iceland deserves to win soon 🙂
@jr esc nl
To be honest, I have a feeling they will let us down once again.
“If everything is okay, we can come back next year”. Well, it is not, because Turkey (or rather the government) does not agree with the rules. And those didn’t change, which is not okay for them.
A lot of people agree with the government, because the government tends to brainwash people in Turkey and also their minds.
But I hope they will. I miss them a lot.
Iceland can easily win Eurovision 2016 or any other Eurovision. Iceland has great voices, exceptional songwriters and a beautiful language. #BlocVotingIsNotTrue
Of course Icelandic broadcaster don’t want to end their participation considering a staggering 95 percent of TV viewers were watching this year’s edition there. What they need is just a great entry. Maria Olafsdottir was good, but I think there were far more better songs in this year’s Iceland’s national selection like Sunday and Elin Sif. I have a sick obsession in Icelandic music scene, and I know Iceland could do better. Beside that, I’m still hoping that Hjaltalin, Moses Hightower, Retro Stefson, Mugison, or even Sin Fang would like to participate in next year’s edition. I want Mugison so… Read more »
Jericho, but didn’t the turkish broadcaster said themselves that they will return?
I knew Iceland would stay.
By the way, for those that say Iceland will never win, that’s because you have never won. #BlocVotingIsNotARealThing
@ Deniz Wikipedia is NEVER right so you can’t believe 20 have confirmed. For instance it says Turkey…
@Deniz, the rest are probably unconfirmed rumours.
I thought there where 20 countries by now. But apperently not.