The Icelandic national broadcaster, RUV, has released more details regarding their national selection which will decide Iceland’s representative for the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.

Back in July, RUV confirmed to ESCToday that Iceland would participate in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in the host city of Stockholm, Sweden. RUV also confirmed that the 2016 Icelandic representative would be selected via the annual Söngvakeppnin national selection.

Söngvakeppnin 2016 will consist of 3 televised shows; 2 semi-finals on the 6 and 13 February 2016 and a Grand Final on the 20 February 2016. In each semi-final, 6 participants will compete in which 3 acts will qualify to the Söngvakeppnin final. A special jury will then go on to select a wildcard entry from one of the semi-finals, therefore a total of 7 acts will compete in the Grand Final of the Icelandic national selection.

Söngvakeppnin 2016 dates

• 06/02: Semi-final 1 (6 competitors, 3 qualifiers)
• 13/02: Semi-final 2 (6 competitors, 3 qualifiers)
• 20/02: Grand Final (7 finalists (6 semi-final qualifiers and 1 wildcard act))

As with previous years, only singers and songwriters with Icelandic citizenship are eligible to compete in Söngvakeppnin. However, Icelandic songwriters are eligible to co-write songs and lyrics with non-Icelandic songwriters.

During the semi-finals, each Söngvakeppnin entry must be performed in Icelandic, however finalists must perform their entries in the Grand Final of the selection in the language the artist intends on performing in at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest. Singers and songwriters have until the 2 November at 11:59 local time to submit their entries via the RUV website. Further rules and regulations regarding the Icelandic national selection can be found via ruv.is.

This year, María Ólafs was selected to represent Iceland at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest with her entry Unbroken. Performing in the second semi-final, Iceland received a total of 14 points finishing in 15th position.

Stay tuned to esctoday.com for the latest news on Söngvakeppnin 2016, Iceland and the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest