Last updated Oct 23, 2020
The Icelandic national broadcaster RÚV has decided that they will not be organizing a national selection in 2021 for the first time since 2005, and that they are going to select the winner of their 2020 national selection to represent Iceland in the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest – Daði Freyr.
The winner of Söngvakeppnin 2020, Daði Freyr, stated that he would like to represent Iceland in Eurovision next year, but only if he was chosen internally.
"There is a lot of work involved in participating in a Singing Competition and at this point I do not see the point in going through it again. If we go straight to Eurovision, we could focus entirely on that."
The Programme Director of RÚV stated:
"Daði won the Competition in 2020 with distinction and the reception of the Icelandic contribution has never been so good. We are therefore very happy and proud to be able to send this great musician and his people out as it was intended last time. Of course, many things had to be considered when this decision was made, but after much deliberation we felt that this was the only right thing to do, not least in light of the unprecedented situation that arose this year that no Eurovision Song Contest was held for the first time in history. We thought it was both right and fair.
We believe that the nation strongly wants Daði and Gagnamagnið to compete on our behalf in this competition. In addition, the uncertainty is so great today that it is not even certain that we can hold a national selection in February in a proper way."
RÚV contacted Daði about writing another song for the 2021 Contest, and confirmed that him and his band have been selected with no Söngvakeppning, and the singer has accepted the offer. He added:
"I am very excited about this. The reason why I competed in Söngvakeppnin 2020 was to try to go with Gagnamagnið to experience Eurovision from the inside. We always aimed to see how far we could get in the competition and it will be the same next year. The entire Gagnamagnið will be included. The main thing in this is that it will be fun but I think it’s the most fun to work. Now I just hope that there will be a real competition."
It was also confirmed that they don’t have a song ready for the Song Contest yet, but that the artists have various ideas. They won this year’s Söngvakeppnin with “Think About Things”, which became a huge success, and lots of fans saw them as contenders for winning the Contest in Rotterdam.