Well respected Icelandic journalist, politician and entertainer Ómar Ragnarsson has criticised Iceland's new selection process and RÚV's way of approaching the contest all together.
Ómar Ragnarssonvoiced his oppinionto Fréttablaðið and told them "We keep making the same mistakes over and over. This contest is supposed tobe about the songs that enter it, not the performers, butin all honesty nobody treats it that way."
As a composer of some songs that have made it as far as the final night of the Icelandic preselection, Ómar has neverfelt he's been in a posistion topublicly criticise the structure of theIcelandic preselection.However, now that's he's not taking part in the contest he's making it known that he believes Iceland are heading nowhere in the Eurovision Song Contest, unlessthings change fast.
He backs up his oppinion by refering to the results of last week's episode of Laugardagslögin –whereBirgitta Haukdal and Magni Ásgeirsson "the king and queen ofIcelandic pop"made it to the final– "Arather dull and uninterestingEurovision ballad got through to the final on a popularity vote. You shoudn't be able to put togethertwo popular artists with any random song and have a guaranteed ticket to the final."
He finished off on a relativelylight note stating "It always seems we're one year behind everyone else. If a rock song wins the contest you can be sure that we will follow with the same genre the year after."