Six finalists competed on Saturday night for representing Iceland in Lisbon. However, as a result of 50/50 combination of international jury voting and TV Voting, Dagur Sigurðarson and Ari Ólafsson made it to the Superfinal where the final say was for televoting only.
After having performed their entries once again, Ari Ólafsson won it with his ballad “Our Choice”. Ari has good vocals and he demonstrated the capacity of his vocals yet when he participated in the Voice of Iceland. Ari’s uncle Paul Oscar also represented Iceland in the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest.
Below you can find a review for each final entry separately.
Fókus hópurinn – Battleline
Fókus hópurinn brought nice performance with confident and strong vocals for the English version of their song Battleline. The band changed their outfits as in the semifinal the members were dressed differently from one another. However, the new red and black costumes was not only looking well with the red color on the backdrops but also made them look more in harmony. Overall for the final the band brought better performance than they did for the semifinal. Nevertheless, in the final they ended up in the fifth place.
Áttan – Here for you
Sonja and Egill come up on stage without their backing vocalists which quite changed their final performance from that of the semifinal. Egill started to perform the English version of the song alone on stage with “here for you” displayed on the backdrops. Later on Sonja in a fur coat accompanied Egill. The screen shots seemed to remain the same – split screen with both of the singers simultaneously featured on it as well as black and white screen at some points of the performance. Áttan’s initial staging with backing vocalists on stage seemed to look better than without them. However, in the Icelandic final the duet finished in the last place.
Ari Ólafsson – Our choice
Ari Ólafsson was one of the serious contenders from the very beginning. Ari doesn’t make any obvious change in his staging, however, for the final he looked more classic as he changed his red sneakers with black shoes. Camera angles were slightly changed too as in the semifinal he had more close up views. Ari’s vocals remained strong while performing the English version of his song “Our Choice” and he didn’t forget to smile during his whole performance. However, right after his performance in the green room he was way too emotional and was speaking to the host all in tears. Eventually he was a runner up in the first round of voting heading to the superfinal. There Ari won the contest and became the Iceland’s choice for Lisbon.
Heimilistónar – Kúst og fæjó
Heimilistónar performed their up tempo song in the Icelandic language as in the semifinal. They kept the same staging and were dressed in the same colorful outfits. However, the band changed their backdrops adding colorful flowers on it. This made their performance look even more cheerful. Their vocals were strong as was in the semifinal. Nevertheless, last time they were looking more confident than they did in the final. All in all their performance was good enough and they ended up in the third place.
Aron Hannes – Golddigger
Aron Hannes was another serious contender and favorite artist for many fans. However, surprisingly for them he ended up in the fourth place. Aron came up with the English version of his song and its staging was not completely the same as there were some new details added like the vending machine on the stage, magnifying glass in the hand of the backing vocalist as well as the new and more colorful backdrops. Aron and his backing vocalists/dancers changed their outfits and that quite changed the overview of the whole performance. The overview was still good but it seemed like Aron’s gold necklace and white T-shirt with jeans were looking better than the new style of the boys.
Dagur Sigurðarson – Í stormi
Dagur’s performance did not change much from that of the semifinal: there were the same quick and sudden changes in camera views and Dagur performed his song in Icelandic keeping his vocals strong enough. However unlike last time, Dagur was alone on stage most of the time and his backing vocalists appeared on stage for a few seconds only in the end of the song. Eventually Dagur won the first round of voting however ending up as runner up in the superfinal.
During the Icelandic final Emmelie De Forest who represented Denmark and won in 2013 as well as Robin Bengtsson who represented Sweden last year in Kiev performed their winning entries. Svala’s successor Ari Ólafsson will sing in the second semifinal of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon.