The Icelandic national broadcaster, RÚV, has confirmed its participation in Eurovision 2025, which will be held in Basel, Switzerland.
The Icelandic national broadcaster RÚV announced today that Iceland will participate in Eurovision 2025, to be held in Basel, Switzerland, a week after postponing discussions on this matter. Iceland is the 29th country so far to express interest in participating in Eurovision 2025, following Austria, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Italy, Belgium, United Kingdom, Georgia, Germany, Denmark, Greece, Israel, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Malta, Norway, San Marino, Spain, Serbia, Portugal, Finland, Czech Republic, France, Cyprus, Croatia, Sweden, and the host country Switzerland.
Iceland’s Recent Stance on Israel
In recent years, Iceland has been considered a country that leads a line of boycotts and provocations against Israel. Among the memorable actions of the Icelanders was the provocation by the band Hatari, who raised a scarf with the Palestinian Authority flag in the Eurovision 2019 final held in Tel Aviv, while sitting in the Green Room.
Even at Eurovision 2024, there were steps against Israel from the Icelandic audience – initially Iceland considered withdrawing, and later launched a national selection where the prominent candidate was a Palestinian singer, Bashar Murad. When the singer failed in the selection and instead singer Hera Björk won, the protest against Israel at Eurovision did not subside – the number of Icelandic viewers at Eurovision decreased and many demonstrations against Israel’s participation were held in Iceland, including a boycott of the event by the country’s president and his participation instead in a fundraising performance for Palestinians.
Decision to Participate in Eurovision 2025
All of these led to much deliberation at the Icelandic national broadcaster regarding participation in Eurovision 2025, which ultimately decided to confirm participation in the competition. Iceland’s selection process for Eurovision 2025 is not yet known, but it will likely be the familiar national selection “Söngvakeppnin”, which has been used by the country for almost all of its years of participation in the competition.
Iceland’s Achievements in the Competition
Iceland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 36 times, but has never won, was absent twice, and one additional time when participation was not carried out was in Eurovision 2020, when Daði Freyr‘s participation, and his song “Think About Things”, was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Iceland breaks records in the competition – both positive and negative. It was recorded some high results on one hand and spectacular crashes on the other. Iceland reached the top five four times, reaching second place twice (in 1999 and 2009) and fourth place twice more (in 1990 and 2021). It reached places 6-10 three additional times. On the other hand, Iceland also reached last place in the competition four times, in 1989, 2001, 2018, and 2024.
Iceland in Eurovision 2024
“Scared Of Heights” is the name of the song performed by singer Hera Björk, who was chosen to represent Iceland after winning the local national finals. Iceland did not advance to the final, finishing 15th and last in the first semi-final with only 3 points.
This is the second consecutive year that Iceland has not qualified for the final, and the fourth time overall that the country has finished last in the competition.
Source: visir.is
Eurovision 2025: This will be Iceland’s 37th participation in Eurovision. Iceland joined the competition in 1986 and achieved its best result in Eurovision 1999 and Eurovision 2009 after finishing second twice.
