ICELAND

The Icelandic Final was held on February 14th at Háskólabíó in Reykjavik, hosted by Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir, Guðrún Dís Emilsdóttir & Salka Sól Eyfeld. There were 2 rounds of voting - the first to select the top 2 and the second to select the winner. In the first round the voting was 50% televoting & 50% "expert" jury while in the second round the winner was chosen by televoting alone. The winning song was "Unbroken" performed by María Ólafsdóttir.

This year's Söngvakeppnin followed a similar process to previous editions. Before the final there were 2 semi finals of which 3 songs qualified from each plus an extra 'wildcard' participant. During the semis, all songs were sung in Icelandic but for the final, songs had to be sing in the language to be performed at Eurovision and as a result of this 5 of the 7 finalists changed to English.

The song is a earthy, hippy-ish ballad which seems to have a lot of influences. It has shades of Florence and the Machine with tones of stereotypical Disney ballads. In some ways it is a very simple song. The start is a little quiet and seemingly low for Maria. If she has nerves on the night this might knock her off before she's even began. The 'letting go' earworm - no not 'let IT go' - is a great one to kick straight into the chorus. The chorus is a little garbled but the tune is quite memorable.

Maria looks like a little Icelandic pixie and has a voice to match. She certainly looks the part and sings the song really well. her English is great although she has that very slight hint of a Scandinavian accent which makes it feel even more cute and pixie-ish. She shows great confidence on the stage, especially at the start when she is seemingly on her own and engages well with the camera which will be key to getting the votes from home.

As a stage act, this really works - the styling, the light boxes, the dancers, the outfits, even the lights in the audience -  but it will need to be ramped up a lot to look good on the stage in Vienna. They need to take the team that they have and make it bigger, more engaging and of course make better use of the increased space they will have in Vienna. That said they don't want to take it to 'Gravity' proportions and I think keeping it simple and ethereal will be the key.

It certainly has an anthemic quality to it and would not sound out of place in the radio. Plus Maria herself will appeal to young girls and will provide some much needed eye candy for the boys. I think this is a certain qualifier, even more so if it becomes the SF2 end song (having been pre drawn in the second half already) I think this is a very strong contender

 and will almost definitely bring Iceland it's best result this millennium but could this be their first win? It's looking a real possibility.

ARTIST - María Ólafsdóttir

SONG - Unbroken

MUSIC - Ásgeir Orri Ásgeirsson, Pálmi Ragnar Ásgeirsson, Sæþór Kristjánsson

LYRICS - Ásgeir Orri Ásgeirsson, Pálmi Ragnar Ásgeirsson, Sæþór Kristjánsson, María Ólafsdóttir