Iceland: Ari Ólafsson wins Söngvakeppnin 2018 and will fly to Lisbon!

by Stratos Agadellis 3,450 views

That was it! Iceland has made a decision: with the public being the event’s only final judge, we now know that Ari Ólafsson will be their representative at Portugal’s Eurovision Song Contest in May, singing Our choice!

It was the Icelanders’… choice!

With the tension getting high and 6 acts all trying to grab the golden Eurovision ticket, it was initially announced that the two superfinalists who would be battling in the final stage of the televoting process were Ari Ólafsson and Dagur Sigurðsson, determined by a combined 50/50 public and jury vote. However, the only one who will defend the island’s colours has been decided to be Ari, and his victory at Söngvakeppnin 2018 is also making him richer by 3 million ISK (24,210 EUR)!

Here you may listen to the winning song of the Icelandic national selection:

A glamorous show just threw its curtains in Iceland’s Laugardalshöll arena, in the world’s northernmost capital, Reykjavik. Hosting the Söngvakeppnin 2018 final show were Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir, Jón Jónsson and Björg Magnúsdóttir.

To our great pleasure, two former Eurostars honored with their presence the event and took the stage to perform their successful Eurovision entries. We’re talking of course about Emmelie de Forest and Robin Bengtsson, performing Only teardrops and I can’t go on respectively.

Iceland at Eurovision

The island of Vikings entered the world’s biggest music event in 1986 and has been counting 30 participations since. With the contest remaining one of the most popular TV shows every year, the Icelanders have enjoyed two second places, with Selma‘s All out of luck in 1999 and with Yohanna‘s Is it true? exactly ten years later, in 2009.

Last year’s Söngvakeppnin contest was won by the famous singer Svala, who flew the country’s flag in Kyiv with the song Paper. Despite being among the favourites for qualifying, she was eliminated in the first semi-final, coming 15th.

In Lisbon, Iceland will be one of the countries opening this year’s Eurovision event, as it will take part in the 1st half of the first semi-final on 8 May.

Will Our choice be a reversal to the country’s recent poor Eurovision fortunes?