THIS YEAR'S ENTRY
Iceland made
its Eurovision debut in 1986, and has been
involved in almost every contest since then,
only missing out in 1998 and 2002, due to
relegation. However for the last three years
Iceland has not made it out of the
semi-final.
Iceland began
their search for their 2008 Eurovision entry
almost as soon as last year's contest was over.
Icelandic television had this year's longest
selection process, starting with a series of
semi-finals at the end of October and reaching a
climax on February 23rd, when the public chose
"This Is My Life" by
Euroband.
The Euroband
was established in March 2006 by Friđrik Ómar
and Regína Ósk who had both participated in
the Icelandic National Song Contest earlier that
year. Regína Ósk was the second runner-up in
the finals with "Ţér viđ hliđ" (At
Your Side) and Friđrik Ómar ended up in third
place with ‘Ţađ sem verđur' (That Which
Comes). Friđrik Ómar also just missed out on
winning the Icelandic national final in 2007
when the song "Eldur" (Fire) came in
second. The other members of the Euroband are
bass player Róbert Ţórhallsson, guitarist
Kristján Grétarsson, drummer Benedikt
Brynleifsson and keyboard player Grétar
Örvarsson, who sang "Eitt Lag Enn"
(One More Song) along with Sigga Beinteins in
Eurovision 1990, and who also co-wrote "Nei
Eđa Já" (Yes Or No) for the 1992
Eurovision Song Contest.
Friđrik Ómar
was born in Akureyri on October 4th 1981. He
started playing the drums only five years old
when his older brother gave him a drum kit. His
mother says he started singing before he could
even talk and he first performed in public at a
school gathering at eight. He began playing
guitar and piano early on and wrote his first
song when he was only ten.
By the age of
eighteen Friđrik had already released two solo
albums and performed at a special concert for
the President of Iceland. After winning a number
of song competitions he moved to Reykjavík
where he successfully auditioned for a part in a
musical.
He has
participated in five popular music shows, worked
with some of Iceland's best known singers and
fronted several bands. Fridrik has recorded two
successful albums that reached gold status and
one that was a certified platinum album. Last
year he collaborated with the Lithuanian group
‘Land' and singer Lim from Malaysia. He has
performed in ‘War of the Worlds' with the
Icelandic Symphony Orchestra and has been
nominated for the Icelandic Music Prize.
Regína Ósk
was born in Reykjavík on December 21st 1977
and, like Friđrik, more or less started singing
before she could talk. Regina won two song
competitions in her early teens, sang solo with
her school choir, and studied classical singing
for a period in The Reykjavík Academy of
Singing and Vocal Arts, before taking some
lessons in jazz vocals. Her first band was the
girl group ‘Söngsystur', which later evolved
into an octet ‘8-villt', but more recently has
been performing with the band Nova.
In 1999
Regína Ósk sang in the musical ‘Little Shop
of Horrors' where she met Selma Björnsdottir,
who represented Iceland at Eurovision in 1999,
and the two worked together for some time after
that. Regina sang backing vocals in Eurovision
in 2001, 2003 and 2005, and has done a lot of
studio session work. She recorded an eponymous
solo album in 2005; second album ‘Í djúpum
dal' was released in 2006 and her third album
‘Ef vćri ég...' appeared in 2007.
The three
songwriters behind "This Is Your Life"
has all been involved in previous Icelandic
entries. Composer Örlygur Smári wrote
the Icelandic Eurovision entry "Tell
Me". Last year
British born Peter Fenner wrote the lyrics for
"Valentine Lost", while co-lyricist
Paul Oscar is well known to Eurovision fans as
the performer songwriter of the 1997 Icelandic
entry "Minn Hinsti Dans" (My Last
Dance) which finished 20th in the contest staged
in Dublin. Paul is a well known and successful
recording artist in Iceland, with a carrer
spanning almost twenty years.
This year's
Icelandic entry is one of the favourites to
qualify from the second semi-final but is not
among those considered likely to finish in the
Top 10 in Belgrade. It has also done quite well
in internet polls, despite the fact that little
has been seen or heard of Euroband, since they
won the ticket for Belgrade.
