Svala to Represent Iceland with Paper!

Over the past two weeks, Iceland has held two semi-finals for their Eurovision national selection Söngvakeppnin, and last night was the final, where one act would be chosen with a mix of jury and televoting. A total of eight acts performed tonight, and as you may recall, in the semi-finals, the artists all performed in Icelandic, and for the final, the artists chose which language they wanted to sing in, English or Icelandic.

Six acts qualified from the two semi-finals, and there was one wildcard entry, which was Hildur. Here is the complete list:

1. Aron Hannes – Tonight

2. Arnar Jónsson & Rakel Pálsdóttir – Again

3. Aron Brink – Hypnotised

4. Hildur –  Bammbaramm

5. Rúnar Eff – Make Your Way Back Home

6. Svala – Paper

7. Daði Freyr Pétursson – Is This Love?

After all the songs were performed, the voting was opened up for both the public and the jury. Before the votes were presented, former Eurovision winner Måns Zelmerlöw performed, and there was also a special duet between former Eurovision participants Greta Salome (Iceland 2012, 2016) and Alexander Rybak (Norway 2009), before Alexander performed his winning 2009 song Fairytale.

The votes were added up, and the top two songs were announced to be Svala and Daði Freyr Pétursson, who then performed their songs again for another round of voting. In the first round, Svala held a very significant lead above the rest of the performers in the final, having over 70,000 total public and jury votes, while second placed song Is This Love was at a total of just over 47,000.

Between the superfinal and the final results, Måns Zelmerlöw came on to perform his winning Eurovision song Heroes, and then, the results revealed that Svala had won Iceland’s ticket to Eurovision with the song Paper.

More about Svala:

Svala Björgvinsdóttir lives in Los Angeles, and started her career early, with her first number 1 hit at the age of nine. She performed a Christmas song with her father Bo Halldórs, who also represented Iceland at Eurovision back in 1995.

In 2006, Svala began the electronic music band Steed Lord with her brother and Einar Egilsson, who later became her husband. In 2008, the band had an unfortunate accident while on the way to the airport in Reykjavik, but thankfully, all involved survived.

In 2012, Svala released her own clothing line, and a few years later she became one of the four judges on the Icelandic version of the Voice.

Listen to the song down below, and if you think Iceland has a good chance, make sure to support them in our Eurovision poll!