The Icelandic national broadcaster, RÚV, today reveals numerous details about Söngvakeppnin 2025, including its final date, February 22, 2025, and significant format changes.
The Icelandic national broadcaster, RÚV, has released information about the format of the Icelandic Eurovision selection, “Söngvakeppnin 2025”, whose winner will represent Iceland at Eurovision 2025 in Basel. The first semi-final will take place on February 8, the second semi-final on February 15, and the final on February 22. Participants in the Icelandic Eurovision selection will be revealed in a special broadcast called “Lögin í Söngvakeppninni” on Friday, January 17, 2025, at 21:40 (Israel time). During the broadcast, the participating artists will be introduced, along with the first snippets of the songs they will perform in the selection.
The selection format includes several significant changes. Ten songs will advance to the semi-final stage, and in each semi-final, which will include five songs as in previous years, three of them will advance to the final. This effectively eliminates the “Wildcard” that was previously awarded to one song by the Icelandic national broadcaster and increases the number of finalists from 5 to 6. One of the most significant changes is the elimination of the final duel of the selection, which was closely associated with it. In previous years, there were two rounds of voting, with the two highest-scoring songs in the first round advancing to an additional final duel of votes, which determined the winner. This year, the second round will be canceled, and the winner will be determined by a vote of seven international juries and public voting with a 50-50 weight, with the winning song being the one with the highest number of points in the single voting round.
The hosts of the selection will be Benedikt Valsson, Fannar Sveinsson, and Guðrún Dís Emilsdóttir, who have previously served as commentators for the Icelandic national broadcaster at Eurovision, and also as hosts of the selection each in a different year.
The Icelandic singing competition “Söngvakeppnin” has been a staple since 1981. From 1986 onwards, it has served as Iceland’s Eurovision national selection method and means of choosing their representative, barring years when internal selections were made. The competition structure includes two semi-finals where songs must be performed in Icelandic, with a combination of public vote and jury selection determining the finalists. In the final round, qualifying songs can be performed in either Icelandic or English, aligning with the artist’s preferred language for Eurovision performance.
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: RÚV
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.
