Iceland have started the ball rolling with Songvakeppnin, their national finals for Eurovision 2009. RUV have posted the four songs that will compete in the first Heat this Saturday. There will be four heats in total, and two songs from each heat will be voted through to the semi finals. You can listen to them here; http://www.ruv.is/songvakeppnin/. Don’t be put off by the pictures of four old men though – they aren’t the performers!
The first four are all ballads. Two in Icelandic and two in English. Three female soloists and one male vocalist. Our favourite so far is ‘Is It True’, but to be honest, they’re all of a similar quantity and standard, and our favourite keeps changing. They’re all emotive, melody driven, down tempo songs. They’ve each got a certain charm to them, and all manage to sound different from one another. It’s quite a strong heat, and it’ll be difficult to predict which two make it through to the semi finals and which two have their Eurovision journey stopped at the first hurdle.
Whoever wins the whole contest though will have massive shoes to fill. Last year’s winner ‘This Is My Life’ by Euroband was a huge fan favourite. It was the first Icelandic song to qualify for the Eurovision final since the semi finals were introduced in 2004 – despite the fact that Iceland have continuously sent strong songs to the competition. Here are the first four songs and their performers;
‘Dagur Nyr’ by Heioa Olafs
‘Hugur Minn Fylgir Per’ by Olof Jara Skagfjoro
‘Is It True’ by Johanna Guorun Jonsdottir
‘The Kiss We Never Kissed’ by Edgar Smoni
