This week will see the national finals kick off in many countries around Europe. Today, Monday 14 January the Icelandic songs will be premiered on radio and online.

The Icelandic national broadcaster RÚV will start playing the songs on the second radio channel, and the songs will also be available to listen on the broadcaster website for international fans.

Söngvakeppni sjónvarpsins, as the show is called in Icelandic, will have a new format this year. There will be two semi-finals that  take place on one weekend, 25 and 26 January, and the Icelandic final will be broadcast from Harpa concert hall in Reykjavik on 2 February at 21.00 CET (20.00 local time).

From each of the two semi-finals three songs will proceed to the final, decided by a public vote. The organisers also reserve the right to add more songs to the six semi-final qualifiers,

The songs will be voted for in a 50/50 jury and televote system in the final. Then the top two songs will battle it out in a superfinal and the winner going to Malmö will be decided between the two.

The shows will be presented by Guðrún Dís Emilsdóttir and Þórhallur Gunnarsson.

The 12 participants are the following:

• Magni Ásgeirsson – Ekki líta undan
• Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson – Ég á líf
• Svavar Knútur Kristinsson and Hreindís Ylva Garðarsdóttir Hólm – Lífið snýst
• Birgitta Haukdal – Meðal andanna
• Edda Viðarsdóttir – Sá sem lætur hjartað ráða för
• Yohanna – Þú
• Erna Hrönn Ólafsdóttir – Augnablik
• Unnur Eggertsdóttir – Ég syng!
• Klara Ósk Elíasdóttir – Skuggamynd
• Sylvía Erla Scheving – Stund með þér
• Jógvan Hansen and Stefanía Svavarsdóttir – Til þín
• Haraldur Reynisson – Vinátta

The participants list per semifinal is not decided yet.

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