After making its contest debut in Bergen in
1986, Eurovision's most northerly outpost will be sending it's 20th
entry to Helsinki. The high point came in 1999 when Iceland
finished 2nd,but since then there has only been one Top 10 result
and the last two Icelandic entries failed to qualify from the
semi-final despite being among the favourites to do so.
Icelandic
broadcaster RUV decided to have another comprehensive selection
process which included three semi-finals, before nine songs
competed in the final, which was staged in Reykjavik''s Basecamp
Studios on February 17th. The winning song, chosen by the public
was "Ég les í
lófa ţínum"
(I Read In Your Palm) sung by vertern singer Eiríkur Hauksson.
Eirikur Hauksson was born in Reykjavik July 4th 1959 and
started his singing career at the age of 15, choosing rock music
rather than opting for a career as a professional football player,
as everyone had expected.
His first serious band was Start. They became quite popular
when his composition "Sekur" (Guilty) was chosen as Song
Of The Year 1981. When Start disbanded in 1983 Eirikur formed the
hard rock band Drysill, releasing the album "Welcome To The
Show" in 1984. This was not the best of times for heavy
metal fans as almost everyone was into new-wave music, so the band
members went their separate ways in 1985.
Eirikur had already made a name for himself when he was asked
by the grand maestro of Icelandic pop music Gunnar Thordarson to
perform two of his songs on a concept album celebrating
Reykjavik's 200th birthday. Both songs became huge hits, leading
to Eirikur being asked to join the Icy trio in the spring of 1986,
when Iceland participated in the ESC for the first time. They
finished 16th in Bergen.
During the next couple of years Eirikur was busy teaching
during the daytime, and performing with various pop bands almost
every night. This was not exactly the life that he had planned for
as his priority was heavy rock.
Eirikur was still working on his first solo album "Skot í
Myrkri" (Shot In The Dark) when he announced in
1988 that he was going to move to Norway. He had already joined
the rock group Artch who released their debut album "Another
Return To Church Hill" that same year, which got great
reviews in the USA and UK. When their second album "For The
Sake Of Mankind" did not turn out to be the success they had
expected the band broke up at the end of 1993. At that time
Eirikur was working as a freelance'singer doing a variety of
things like occasional gigs with rock groups, as well as
representing Norway in the ESC 1991 with Just 4 Fun, they finished
17th in Rome with the song "Mrs.Thompson" .
Over the last decade Eirikur has frequently visited Iceland to
sing with his old friends and been busy touring with former Thin
Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson. Most recently he has been working
with keyboard player and guitarist Ken Hensley who is known for
his work with Uriah Heep in the 1970's.
When Eirikur was asked by composer Sveinn Runar Sigurdsson to
participate in the Icelandic Eurovision selection show Söngvakeppni
Sjónvarpsins he refused at first, but after hearing the song, he
decided to join in for the fun of it. He got through the
semi-finals, qualifying for the final show where he beat all of
his eight competitors making him the Icelandic representative in
ESC 2007 in Helsinki.
Composer Sveinn Runar Sigurdsson was born on December 24th
1976, in Reykjavik, Iceland. He started learning the piano and
church organ at the age of 16. From the beginning of his studies
Sveinn has put the emphasis on composition. At the age of 18
Sveinn made his first TV appearance playing his own classical
piece and the same year he entered his first classical competition
"Tonvakinn". From 1997 Sveinn has added pop music to his
composition style. Sveinn composed "Heaven" in 2004,
which was his second attempt at a Eurovision song, and the 6th
from his family, as two of his cousins have made it into the
Icelandic finals, with one of them Sverrir Stormsker, competing
for Iceland in Dublin in 1988 with his song "Sokrates".
Sveinn currently resides in Hungary and is running a software
company based in Moscow. Some of his recent compositions have been
released in Scandinavia, Australia, Argentina and South Africa.
Lyicist Peter Fenner was born in Maidstone, England on 19th
November 1962. He loves all kinds of music but among his favourite
artists are Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell and Morrissey. Peter has
written foreign language versions of Icelandic Eurovision entries
by Selma (1999), TwoTricky (2001) and Birgitta Haukdal (2003) and
it was Selma who encouraged him to take his songwriting seriously.
He co-wrote the Spanish single version of Cyprus Eurovision entry
"Gimme" by One in 2002, which did well in Spain, Greece
and Cyprus, and contributed to Spanish tracks on One's album that
year. Peter wrote an English lyric for Sveinn's composition
"Mynd Af Ţer", Birgitta's entry in the Icelandic
national final in 2006, and then in 2007 Sveinn invited him to
write an English version of "Ég les í lófa ţínum"
if it won the Icelandic preselection. He is now very pleased to be
the first British writer to provide lyrics for an Icelandic
Eurovision entry. He currently resides in London.
Eiríkur has done limited promotion for his Eurovision return,
although he has kept his place on the panel of experts that
reviews the videos for the Nordic previews show. An early draw in
the semi-final is thought not to help to the chances of Icelandic
qualifying for the final for the first time and the song remains
an outsider with bookmakers and hasn't set most internet polls on
fire.
![[]](images/is.gif)
ICELAND @ EUROVISION