Tonight, the 2008 national final season of the Eurovision Song Contest will continue: the ninth semi final of the Icelandic national selection will be held. Three songs will be presented and the best one – chosen by televoting – will reach the final to be held on 16th February. Of course, there will be a webcast again!

The show

The show will start at 21:15 CET (20:15 local time). The results will be revealed in the second part of the show at 22:40 CET. Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir & Gísli Einarsson will host the program.

Although the winners will be chosen by televoting, there is also a jury that comments on the songs. One of the jury members is Selma who represented Iceland twice in the Eurovision Song Contest: in 1999, she achieved second place (Iceland's best result so far) with All out of luck; in 2005 she didn't manage to qualify through the semi final with If I had your love.

You can read more about the selection procedure here.

Webcast

You can follow the high qualitywebcast here.

The songs

It will be the third and last turn of three of the composers who have been commissioned by RÚV to write songs for the Icelandic selection. The complete line-up is as follows:

1. Dr. Spock (composer: Dr. Gunni) – Hvar ert þú?
2. Ragnheiður Gröndal (composer: Magnús Þór Sigmundsson) – Skot í myrkri
3. Birgitta Haukdal & Magni Áseirsson (composer: Hafdís Huld Þrastardóttir) – Núna veit ég

Birgitta Haukdal represented Iceland in the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest and finished 8th, Iceland's fourthbest result so far,with the song Open your heart she has co-written. She has also taken part in the 2001 Icelandic national final where she finished 7th with Eyjólfur Kristjánsson and the song Aftur heim and in 2006 with the song Mynd af þér finishing 4th.

Dr. Gunni's took part in the second semi final with the song Ísinn but neither qualified nor got a wildcard. The same happened to him in the fifth semi final with his contribution Drepum tímann. Magnús Þór Sigmundsson won the third semi final with Lullaby to peace and got a wild card for his entry Johnny in the fifth semi final. Hafdís Huld Þrastardóttir performed her first two entries Boys and perfume in the first semi final and Á gleymdum stað in the seventh semi final herself only getting a wildcard for her first song.

In 2005, 2006 and 2007, Iceland did not manage to reach the final of the Eurovision Song Contest although the country was sometimes quite close finishing 16th, 13th and again 13th in the semi final respectively. Iceland will havetake part in one of the semi finalsin Belgrade.