The tenth semi final of the Icelandic selection for the Eurovision Song Contest is about to take place. You can watch the webcast by following the link below and as usual, follow the show with reactions here.
Live coverage by Bjarni Heiðar Halldórsson.
As usual, tonight's three guest panelists are Þorvaldur Bjarni, Selma and Erpur Eyvindarsson. Dr. Spock (composer: Dr. Gunni) – Hvar ert þú has been confirmed as last week's second chance winner.
1. Andrea Gylfadóttir (performer and composer) – Flower of fire
Andrea Gylfadóttir is accompanied by with 2 guitar players on a quite simple stage setting. The song is a soft wrong mid tempo effort. Selma is very pleased with Andrea's performance. She feels she's putting on a great show and is pleasantly surprised with her week after week. Erpur feels that this rock themed song was missing something. He mentions that if you're going to make a song of this kind you need to go completely crazy, at least if you intend to make some progress in the Eurovision Song Contest. Þorvaldur seems very happy with Andrea's performance. He compliments Andrea for broadening her horizons week after week and the last thing he expected from this great artist was this kind of glamour rock!
2. Þóra Gísladóttir (composer: Guðmundur Jónsson) – Að eilífu
Þóra starts off softly with a nice country styled ballad. The song lifts surprisingly into a pop/rock effort with strong vocals. Þóra Gísladóttir a fairly unknown artist in the Icelandic music industry. Her performance is very pure and is well recieved by the live audience.
Erpur says that it's a nice and positive song and even though it's a love the lyrics of it dont contain the same old "happy together" phrases that most modern love songs do. Selma is pleased but feels that there was something missing in the song itself although she feels Þóra's performance was very honest and pure. Þorvaldur didn't agree with Selma that there was something missing in the song. He was pleased with the simplicity of it and that told Selma that if she had listened better she would have noticed many small surpricing instrumental elements in the song, something he was very pleased with.
3. Ragnheiður Gröndal (composer: Margrét Kristín Sigurðardóttir) – Don't wake me up
Ragnheiður steps on stage dressed in a blue glittery dress. The song has a bluesy joyful element to it. The chorus is very catchy and rememberable with a blues / jazz vibe. The song is performed live and the vocals are flawless.
Erpur is very pleased and feels that this song is so joyful that it could even belong in a musical. Selma agrees with Erpur and says that the song reminds her of some 30's musical. Þorvaldur sends out a call to all Icelandic producers to hire Margrét Kristín Sigurðardóttir as a composer for new musicals. His comments on the song are on the same note as the other jury members. He's very pleased with the how easy going and careless the melody is and adds that he would be proud to see a song like this one represent the country in Eurovision.
The results show will begin at 22:25 CET (21:25 local time)
And the winner is…Ragnheiður Gröndal with Don't wake me up
