Iceland: Liveblog of Songvakeppnin ‘s first semifinal

Icelandic broadcaster RUV will tonight kick off their selection process for Eurovision 2016. Songvakeppnin 2016 begins with the first semifinal tonight live from Reykjavik. Six performers will compete for three places in the grand final of the competition to be held in two weeks time.

2301: The first show in Iceland is over, the liveblog is over, too. But feel free to read back on all the action below! And if you just want an overview of the results, here they are one more time:

1 Greta Salóme Stefánsdóttir “Raddirnar” –> qualified
2 Erna Hrönn Ólafsdóttir & Hjörtur Traustason “Hugur minn er” –> qualified
3 Ingólfur Þórarinsson “Fátækur námsmaður” (eliminated)
4 EVA “Ég sé þig” (eliminated)
5 Karlotta Sigurðardóttir “Óstöðvandi” –> qualified
6 Sigga Eyrún “Kreisí” (eliminated)

2246: These artists will now go through to the grand final of the competition to be held in two weeks time. And that’s it for tonight! We’ve been liveblogging at ESCDaily across 6 countries this evening and that is a rap, you can read all of our live blogs from the other countries featuring results across Europe as selection season really gets underway. You can join us again next weekend for the liveblog from the second semifinal in Iceland where the line up for the grand final will be completed, in the meantime you can keep up to date with everything by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter @escdaily.

2242: Time for results: The three acts who have triumphed this evening and will advance to the grand final of Songvakeppnin 2016 are: Greta Salóme Stefánsdóttir, Karlotta Sigurðardóttir, and Erna Hrönn Ólafsdóttir & Hjörtur Traustason.

2235: Another ad break before we can hear the results of this evening’s semifinal.

2227: OHMYGODIT’SPALLOSKAR. He hasn’t aged a day since 1997. Wearing a sparkly blue playsuit he performs an original song as a tribute to Eurovision in Iceland. So over the top, but brilliant. There’s so much fabulousness going on here, can we just cancel the competition and have this for Iceland instead?

2220: We then move on to a segment looking at the history of Songvakeppnin in Iceland  and what Eurovision means in Iceland.

2203: So all six semifinalists have now performed and the lines are open for the public to vote for their favourite. More interviews backstage proceed a recap of all of tonight’s finalists and then a second commercial break.

2157: The sixth and final performance of the night comes from  Sigga Eyrún with the song “Kreisí”. “Crazy” is the English translation of this song and it really fits: this is insane but I absolutely love it. It’s a gritty drum and bass influenced pop song. Dark and electronic the performance features flashing lights, a drag queen, and a woman playing ping pong with some very erratic make up and some strange static dancing. This is intentionally trashy, so much so that it works very well. The song also has good international appeal in that the title “Kreisi” is repeated throughout the song and it sounds very similar to the English word “Crazy” carrying the message of the song pretty well for a international audience.

2149: Karlotta Sigurðardóttir is the penultimate performer of the night with the song“Óstöðvandi“. Written by Karlotta herself, the song translates into English as “Unstoppable”, and she is unstoppable, she’s young, cool, and energetic. Dressed in a silver jumpsuit and accompanied by three backing dancers dressed in black and two backing vocalists, she brings power to this catchy, angry, pop song. The song is very catchy and makes for easy listening, however there is a problem. Karlotta is quite young and cute and it’s almost like a kitten trying to roar, she lacks a certain power in both her vocals and her stage presence to make this truly outstanding.

2139: EVA is up next with “Ég sé þig” which translates into English as “I see you”. The girls perform this native american inspired folksy ballad in a sand pit, accompanied by two guitarists next to a log fire. It has a very traditional folksy feel to it; it’s a campfire song! A unique ballad in it’s styling, it’s dark yet peaceful, easy listening. Worryingly however, it isn’t the most memorable song, it’s not catchy and doesn’t really have a good hook.

2131: A couple of interviews with the artists who have already performed take place in the green room to mark the half way point in the performances. Then it’s time for an ad break.

2126: The next performance is Ingólfur Þórarinsson and the song “Fátækur námsmaður”. In English, this song translates as “A Broke Student”, an unusual title and likely unusual lyrics I can assume, it would probably serve better for a song like this to be performed in English. That said: this is so much fun! It’s an energetic, youthful pop rock song. There’s a lot of stuff going on on stage, he starts in bed, wakes up, has to handle some confused and disgruntled looking professors, then plays guitar with his female counterpart who is dressed in an orange dress and wearing sunglasses. It’s a youth anthem about the struggles of being a student. Unfortunately he’s broken rule number 1 of stage performance: NEVER WEAR SUNGLASSES. The song is catchy and energetic, however there is a lot going on, it does get a bit much.

2119: Erna Hrönn Ólafsdóttir & Hjörtur Traustason are next with the song “Hugur minn er”. This track is a mellow guitar led ballad. The two artists are both in black sitting together on stools singing to each other and to the camera. Yellow lights illuminate the stage as the song grows in power towards the second half. The vocals in this performance are very impressive and the performance is very emotional, if not a little theatrical.

2113: After a quick look at the green room, it’s on to our first artist; Greta Salóme Stefánsdóttir with the song “Raddirnar”. Greta is well known for being part of the due which represented Iceland at Eurovision 2012 in Baku. The song “Raddirnar” translates into English as “The voices”. The performance starts out very dark, with a silhouette of Greta standing alone in front of a LED screen, as the performance goes on she interacts with the LED screen, bringing this performance to life: a great visual show. The song is mature and influenced by indie sounds. Her sound has developed very well since 2012. Some could compare the styling of this as similar to Loreen. She is wearing a black tasseled shirt and the styling is dark and mysterious. Great song to open the show.

2106: The two female hosts then welcome us to the show, treating us to a recap featuring every single Icelandic Eurovision entry over the past 30 years. So many memories!

2100: The show begins! After a 15 minute episode of Hraðfréttir in which they discussed Iceland’s history in the Eurovision Song Contest, we’re ready to watch this year’s national final. The show is opening with a performance by 101 boys, they’re performing a grimey rap song to open the show.

Two of tonight’s three winners will be selected by a public vote with the third finalist being chosen by a professional jury. The three finalists from tonight’s show will join three finalists from next week’s show to give us our final line up, the show is being broadcast live on RUV in Iceland and via the RUV website online. The line up for tonight’s semifinal is as follows:

1 Greta Salóme Stefánsdóttir “Raddirnar”
2 Erna Hrönn Ólafsdóttir & Hjörtur Traustason “Hugur minn er”
3 Ingólfur Þórarinsson “Fátækur námsmaður”
4 EVA “Ég sé þig”
5 Karlotta Sigurðardóttir
“Óstöðvandi”
6 Sigga Eyrún
“Kreisí”

The rules of the competition state that all entries must be in Icelandic to participate, however the song can be changed should it be selected for Eurovision. The show tonight promises to be a celebration of 30 years of Eurovision participation with performances from Pall Oskar who famously represented Iceland in 1997, and also the band 101 Boys. The show starts at 2100 CET and we will be updating our liveblog throughout the night with all of the updates from Iceland so be sure to check back at ESCDaily for all of tonight’s news.