Iceland’s national selection continued tonight. Six artists fought for the last three tickets for the final of Söngvakeppnin 2016 to take place on the 20th of February. The seventh finalist will be selected by the jury from the six remaining entries that failed to qualify from the semi-finals.

Six songs and artists competed tonight in the second semi-final to decide who would be the lucky ones to make it to the final of Söngvakeppnin 2016. You can listen to the studio version of all the competing songs on the official site of RÚV.

The songs

Þórdís Birna Borgarsdóttir & Guðmundur Snorri Sigurðarson – Spring yfir heiminn  

Erna Mist & Magnús Thorlacius – Ótöluð orð

Helgi Valur Ásgeirsson – Óvær

 Elísabet Ormslev – Á ný

Pálmi Gunnarsson – Ég leiði þig heim

Alda Dís Arnardóttir – Augnablik

The show

Söngvakeppnin 2016 is the Icelandic national final format developed by RÚV in order to select their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. This year, the competition celebrates Iceland’s 30th anniversary since their first participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. In addition to selecting the Icelandic entry for Eurovision, an additional monetary prize of 1 million Icelandic Króna will be awarded to the writers of the winning song.

The three shows of Söngvakeppnin 2016 will be hosted by Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir and Guðrún Dís Emilsdóttir in Reykjavík. Tonight’s semi-final was held at the Háskólabíó venue.

The guest performances of tonight’s semi-final were Högni Egilsson and 2014 Icelandic Eurovision entrants Pollapönk.

Before the results, we had a small video of previous Söngvakeppnin, which, as we have already said, celebrates 30 years on the Icelandic TV. .

The results

The three acts to proceed to the final were randomly announced. These were:

Þórdís Birna Borgarsdóttir & Guðmundur Snorri Sigurðarson – Spring yfir heiminn  

Elísabet Ormslev – Á ný 

Alda Dís Arnardóttir – Augnablik

Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest

Iceland entered Eurovision in 1986 and this year will thus mark the island’s 30th anniversary in the event. The country has missed participating in the contest twice, in 1998 and 2002, due to poor results in the previous years as, at the time, rules stipulated that a country got excluded for a year if it failed to rank high enough. Iceland’s best results to date remain two second placings: in 1999 with Selma and All Out Of Luck and 2009 with Yohanna and Is It True? Last year, the country was represented by María Ólafs, whose entry Unbroken managed to climb to number three in the Icelandic charts but failed to qualify for the 2015 Eurovision Grand Final from the semi-final stage in Vienna.

Below, you can watch a compilation of the last eight years of Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest. We did our best to find our greatest footage and maybe you’ll see something you haven’t seen before.