Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Now as Iceland has withdrawn from Eurovision song contest at least in 2026, let's have a look of some Icelandic favorites of mine over the years. Starting off with Euroband's banger that is one of my all time favourite and sure to put me in the mood anytime in seconds! This is my life!  Enjoy! 2008 Euroband - This is my life (14th) 1997 Páll Òskar - Minn hinsti dans (20th) 2003 Birgitta - Open your heart (8th) 1994 Sigga - Nætur (12th) 2019 Hatari - Hatrið mun sigra (10th) 2022 - Systur - Með hækkandi sól (23rd) 2009 Yohanna - Is it true? (2nd) 2025 Væb - Róa (25th) 2010 Hera Björk - Je ne sais quoi (19th) There would have been quite a few to pick up as well but these sounded the ones at this time and space.  Special mentions go to: 2013 Eyþór Ingi - Ég á líf (17th) 2007 Eirikur Hauksson - Valentine lost (sf 13th) 2005 Selma - If I had your love (sf 16th) 1985 ICY - Gleðibankinn (16th) 2018 Ari Olafsson - Our choice (sf 19th)

  One of the most troubled national selections this year was Iceland's Söngvakeppnin 2024. In surface it all went as usual: two semifinals with songs in Icelandic and then the final with free language rule. The most hulabaloo was around Bashar Murad, a Palestinian singer-songwriter who competed with a song co-written by Hatari member (The infamous Free Palestine flag episode in Eurovision) and the fact that Iceland and Rúv didn't confirm the participation in Malmö until the very last minute. In the end Hera Björk pulled a surprise win - it may or may not been orchestrated as an anti-Murad act.... Looking it all from afar it seemed at times the whole affair had taken Söngvakeppnin in hostage. Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir (51) is of course a very familiar name in Eurovision circuit. In 2010 she placed  unfairly only 19th in Eurovision with quite fantastic Je ne sais pourquoi, You may have spotted her also in the Icelandic backing group several times. Add a few national final p...

If you are heading to Eurovision In Concert in Amsterdam on April 6th be sure to make it a day, or  a night earlier because on 5th there's the pre-party in Melkweg! Organized by OGAE NL the event features previous Eurovision winners and stars to have a great time mingling with the other fans and enjoying the music. Marga Bult aka Marcha is not only performing her Rechtop in de wind but also being the hostess of the evening. More info here Get your tickets here

Iceland will select its entry for Eurovision song contest 2019 tonight. After two semi-finals and one wildcard granted (Kristina) five songs will battle it out in Reykjavik. First round will be 50-50 televote-jury and the top-2 will have to face another round with televoting only. True Eurovision veteran Hera Björk is back again, as is Friðrik Ómar of Euroband fame. Both come with dated ballads, well performed but dated and not extraordinary. Then there's 2 minutes of noise pollution in from of Hatari trying to scandalize and provoke but it's only waste of everyone's time in my opinion. Give me Rammstein instead any day! Wildcard Kristina brings some joyful vintage uptempo to the contest but needs to improve a lot the performance and staging to make an impact. Whoever styled Tara should take a long look at the mirror. Her harmless little song stands out for freshness among these very mediocre entries. I really don't know who's going to win and anyone can do but I...

Iceland's Söngvakeppni 2019 is full of familiar names from Eurovision veterans Hera Björk to Friðrik Ómar with Svala and Malta's very own veteran Richard Micallef aka Edwards among songwriters. Daniel took part in Söngvakeppni 2015 as CADEM, Kristina Skoubo Bærendsen tried her luck two years ago in duet with Páll Rósenkrans and comes actually from Faroe Islands. And Elli is transgender. If you need to know. The songs are as usual mostly recorded in both Icelandic and English versions. Nice variety of songs with a couple of ones edging novelty but nothing extraordinary or standout....  Semi-final one - February 9, 2019 Hatari - Hatrið mun sigra  * video   FINAL live (Hatari) Hera Björk - Eitt andartak / Moving On  *** FINAL  live (Örlygur Smári, Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir & Valgeir Magnússon) Kristina Skoubo Bærendsen - Ég á mig sjálf / Mama Said  ** live (Sveinn Rúnar Sigurðsson & Valgeir Magnússon) Þórdís Imsland - Nú og hér ...

There are always a lot of theme parties at Eurovison city and at EuroClub. Last night it was time for the Nordic Light one when the artists from Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Estonia got together and shared the spotlight with only Norwegian Agnete missing out for health problems.   Hera & Greta  Selfie time for Sandhja and Greta! Check out some videos after the jump .-)

Iceland has a strange mix of pink fairy barefoot with green painted feet and Northern Lights in the backdrop. Both are beautiful separatelt but mixing them together? Hmm... not quite sure, but who knows? I have a trouble with this song. I liked it when it won even though it wasn't my favourite in Iceland. Then I grew tired of it very quickly and the fondness has not emerged again no matter what. Still, this is quite popular with the polls and fans. Anyways, it seems the most interesting thins seems to be Hera Björk's absense. No worries, she's due to be in Vienna tomorrow after a little visit to hospital that delayed her arrival. Can mighty Hera continue her string of 100% qualification? Maybe.... 

How many Finnish skinny girls do you need to fill Hera Björk's shoes? Two. The Kätkä sisters aka CatCat have visited studios again after a long break and here's the Finnish version of Hera's Eurovision entry Je ne sais quoi , Vapaus

The big Eurovision party organized by OGAE Portugal takes place in Setúbal's Auditório José Afonso, Portugal tonight. Eurovision winner 1986 Sandra Kim will be there along with Eurovision stars Hera Björk, Jakob Svaistrup, Karolina, Hanna Pakarinen, Michael von der Heide, Mihai Traistariu, Anabel Conde, Filipa Azevedo, Fridrik Omar, Nucha with several national finalists from Portugal and Spain including Coral. Sounds like fun! How about Portugal, will it finally win with its 45th entry in 2011? It has way passed the record by Finland that won by its 40th entry in 2006.

Hera Björk will be the guest star in the annual drag queen contest in Hotel President in Helsinki tonight. The contest has been running since 1997. A panel of judges made of Finnish celebs from minister of environment to singers, dancers and other will see who's got the je ne sais quoi this year. Doors open at 8pm and the fun starts at 9.30pm.

Hanna Pakarinen will join the other artists already confirmed - Hera Björk, Michale von der Heide, Mihai Traistariu, Anabel Conde, Filipa Azevedo, Fridrik Omar, Coral, Nucha and several other Portuguese artists - in September in Portugal's Eurovision party. Way to go, girl!

Hera Björk, running for victory tonight for Iceland tells on eurovision.tv that she had to have a cake bazaar to collect funds for her trip: “We actually held a cake bazaar! We needed some more money than we had to do this like we wanted it to be, so we went to the biggest shopping mall, and everyone baked – all the mummys, grannys and fathers. And we sold cakes for a lot of money and sang ,” Hera says. I just have to love that woman! And here's a lovely interview with her.

Even if Kuunkuiskaajat didn't make the final the girls have stayed in Oslo doing PR and having fun. Tonight they will be in Telenor arena watching the show in the audience. "We don't know who's gonna win but we have our favourites!" they say and here they are: 1. Serbia : Just so full of good humour. We like Balkan horn music. And Milan is so sweet! 2. Spain: Great spund. Daniel is very charismatic, with a twinkle in the eye - we could eat him! 3. Israel : Harel has amazing voice and charisma. He doesn't flirt with the camera, he goes into the music. The song has power, it's not a sugary ballad. 4. Iceland: Winner! Hera's singing is so effortless, amazing peronality. We will meet with Hera as soon as possible in Finland or in iceland. 5. Greece: Party song. Great choreography. The whole performance is filled with manly sweat! Heavenly testerone! 6. Georgia : Sofia is even better singer than Hera but Hera has more personality. 7. Belgium : Tom will ...

What happens when Hera Björk meets Safura in the pool? Watch here ! :-) Isn't it a bit ironic both ladied from lands of fire play with water?!

I never noticed Hera's backing singers/dancers aren't exactly model thin like either. A lot of red dress in all of them to be swallowed by the red and black stage. Maybe it will all look better in telly? Anyways, Hera and co. sing perfectly, the song's a good in its Eurovision meets gay anthem retrodiscoschlager type. I still think this will sail to the final without problems but then a little thought comes in my mind: will this be the Kate Ryan of 2010 after all? It's maybe missing the necessary spark. Video .

While waiting for the French version of Israel here's the one from Iceland, Je ne sais quoi . Is French the new English?

Hera Björk has done a pretty fantastic video for her Je ne sais quoi, the Icelandic entry for Oslo 2010. Not only Safura gets to taste the waters in this year's videos!. The climax comes in the end! Here .

As expected Iceland has revamped, remixed, recharged their entry Je ne sais quoi - just like they did with This is my life, from this to this - and you can listen to it here .

OGAE Germany is having its annual convention tomorrow in Cologne. The special guests for the night are Croatia's Igor Cukrov and Germany's Oscar Loya from Moscow 2009 as well as Hera Björk who has been backing the Icelandic entries both 2008 and 2009 , almost won in Denmark this year and is highly actual in the Icelandic 2010 selection as well. If you are nearby drop in Gloria Theatre and join in the fun!