Iceland kicks off its Eurovision 2019 campaign tonight with the first semi-final of Söngvakeppnin 2019.

This is the 14th year of that Iceland has decided it Eurovision entry with Söngvakeppnin, and this year sees 10 acts performing over two semi finals.

National broadcaster RÚV has made some changes to the format this year, with the winners being decided by a mixture of public and jury votes – in past years it has been decided by 100% public vote. There will be 5 acts performing in each semi final, with 2 acts moving forward to the final for each show, although RÚV has declared they may put forward a wild card entry, so there may be up to 5 acts performing in the final.

The acts are all required to sing in Icelandic for the semi-finals, and then in the language the intend to perform in Tel Aviv in the Final. The songs tonight will be introduced by Icelandic TV Personalities Fannar Sveinsson and Benedikt Valsson.

The acts participating tonight are:

1. Hatari – Hatrið mun sigra
2. Hera Björk – Eitt andartak
3. Kristina Skoubo Bærendsen – Ég á mig sjálf
4. Þórdís Imsland – Nú og hér
5. Daníel Óliver – Samt ekki

Notable entries in this heat include Hera Björk who previously represented Iceland in Eurovision 2010. In addition, Sveinn Rúnar Sigurðsson, who is one of the co-writers on Kristina’s entry, was also a writer on Iceland’s 2004 and 2007 entries. Writers on Þórdís Imsland’s entry also include Svala who competed in the 2017 contest.

How to watch

Söngvakeppnin first semi-final starts tonight at 20:45 CET (19:45 local time) and may be watched through:

• RÚV 1

Stay tuned to esctoday.com, where we will publish the results from the show later tonight.