Iceland was set to be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, which was scheduled to be held in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Icelandic broadcaster (RÚV) held a televised selection process, 2020, to choose its entry for the contest. Following two semi-finals and a final, "Think About Things", written by Daði Freyr Pétursson and performed by Daði og Gagnamagnið, emerged as the winner of the event in February 2020. In mid-March 2020, due to the spread across Europe of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced the contest's cancellation; six months later, RÚV announced that Daði would instead represent Iceland in the 2021 contest.
During 2020 and following its selection as Iceland's entry, "Think About Things" went on to become a viral phenomenon and was considered one of the favourites to win the contest before the cancellation. It went on to win several alternative contests, held by national broadcasters in place of Eurovision to determine their public's favourite song, including Austria's and Sweden's .
Background
Prior to the 2020 contest, Iceland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 32 times following its first entry in 1986 and had failed to participate on only two occasions since their debut. The contest has been broadcast in Iceland since as early as 1970, but the geographically-remote nation was prevented from competing until a stable satellite connection could be established to enable live transmission of it. Iceland had never won the contest ahead of the 2020 event, but had previously achieved two second place finishes, in with the song "All Out of Luck" performed by Selma and in with the song "Is It True?" performed by Yohanna. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the , Iceland's entries appeared in the final on nine occasions. In , Iceland marked their fourth consecutive non-qualification when Ari Ólafsson and the song "Our Choice" placed 19th and last in the first semi-final, standing as the country's worst result at the contest. Iceland made its returned to the final in , with Hatari and the song "" placing 10th with 232 points and bringing the nation back into the top 10 for the first time since 2009.
The Icelandic national broadcaster, (RÚV), broadcasts the event within Iceland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. The Icelandic broadcaster has used various methods to select the Icelandic entry in the past, such as internal selections and televised national finals to choose the performer and song to compete at Eurovision. Since 2006 RÚV has chosen its entry for Eurovision through , a televised music competition. RÚV confirmed its intention to participate at the 2020 contest on 13 September 2019 through a post on the official Facebook page, and concurrently affirmed details for the production of 2020 to select its entry as well as opening the song submission process.
Before Eurovision Söngvakeppnin 2020 RÚV once again organised ("The Singing Competition") to determine the Icelandic entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition consisted of three shows held in the Icelandic capital Reykjavík, with two semi-finals held in the on 8 and 15 February 2020 and the final held in the Laugardalshöll on 29 February. All three shows were broadcast on RÚV and online at the broadcaster's official website ruv.is and were hosted by , Benedikt Valsson and .
The 2020 contest was announced on 13 September 2019 and until 17 October, interested artists and songwriters were invited to submit entries for the contest through the website. Alongside this open submission process RÚV also held discussions with experienced Icelandic songwriters inviting them to write entries for the competition. Each composer could submit up to two songs for consideration, while lyricists could be credited on an unlimited number of songs. A total of 157 songs were subsequently registered for the competition, 25 more than those entered for the previous contest; a seven-member panel consisting of individuals from the Icelandic Society of Authors and Composers (; FTT) and the Icelandic Musicians' Union (; FÍH) was tasked with selecting ten songs to compete in the semi-finals. In addition to winning the right to represent Iceland at the Eurovision Song Contest, any authors of the winning song received a prize of .
Ahead of the contest, it was reported that RÚV had signed a sponsorship deal with American streaming platform Netflix worth , which would contribute to 2020. This was part of Netflix's ambitions to grow in the Nordics region and RÚV's plans to improve its media operations, as well as to better compete with international content providers. This agreement was reported soon after the conclusion of filming for Netflix's Eurovision-themed film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020), which was filmed in the town of Húsavík and other parts of Iceland.
Competing entries The 10 competing artists and songs were revealed by RÚV on 18 January 2020, and were presented for the first time the same day through the special programme ("Introductory Episode of the Song Competition"). The songs were initially leaked on Spotify a number of hours before the official presentation on RÚV, which inadvertently revealed the artists competing in the event. Per the rules of the contest, all entries were required to be performed in Icelandic in the semi-finals, with artists being given a free choice on language should their song reach the final.
Several of the competing artists had participated in previous editions of : in addition to competing in the , , and editions of the contest, Matti Matt was also a member of the group Sjonni's Friends that represented Iceland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011, where they placed 20th; Daði Freyr had previously competed in , where he placed second behind Svala; and Elísabet had participated in , where she qualified for the final and placed 6th.
+ 2020Competing entries Artist Song Songwriter(s) Icelandic title English title Brynja Mary "" "In Your Eyes" Brynja Mary Sverrisdóttir, Lasse Qvist, Kristján Hreinsson Daði og Gagnamagnið "" "Think About Things" Daði Freyr Pétursson Dimma "" Dimma, Ingó Geirdal Elísabet "" "Haunting" Elísabet Ormslev, Zoe Ruth Erwin, Daði Freyr Pétursson Hildur Vala "" Hildur Vala Einarsdóttir, Jón Ólafsson, Bragi Valdimar Skúlason Ísold and Helga "" "Meet Me Halfway" Birgir Steinn Stefánsson, Ragnar Már Jónsson, Stefán Hilmarsson Iva "" Iva Marín Adrichem, Richard Cameron Kid Isak "" Þormóður Eiríksson, Kristinn Óli Haraldsson, Jóhannes Damian Patreksson Matti Matt "" Birgir Steinn Stefánsson, Ragnar Már Jónsson, Matthías Matthíasson Nína "" "Echo" Þórhallur Halldórsson, Sanna Martinez, Einar Bárðarson, Christoph Baer, Donal Ryan
Shows Semi-finals Two semi-finals took place on 8 and 15 February 2020. In each semi-final five of the ten competing acts performed and two entries determined solely by the viewing public through telephone voting progressed to the final. Per the rules of the competition an additional optional qualifier could be selected by the contest organisers from among the non-qualifying acts, which would also progress to the final. This option was subsequently invoked by the organisers, meaning that a total of five acts qualified for the final.
A number of guest performances also featured during the two shows. The first semi-final featured performances by GDRN and 2003 Icelandic Eurovision entrant Birgitta Haukdal and an appearance by Icelandic actress . The second semi-final featured performances by Flóni, who performed a rendition of the 1991 Icelandic Eurovision entry "Draumur um Nínu", and Elín Ey, who performed the 1974 Eurovision winning entry "Waterloo".
+ Semi-final 1 – 8 February 2020 Artist Song Votes Place Result 1 Kid Isak "" 3,651 3 2 Elísabet "" 1,989 5 3 Brynja Mary "" 3,374 4 4 Ísold and Helga "" 6,654 2 Finalist 5 Dimma "" 14,984 1 Finalist
+ Semi-final 2 – 15 February 2020 Artist Song Votes Place Result 1 Daði og Gagnamagnið "" 11,218 1 Finalist 2 Hildur Vala "" 1,336 5 3 Iva "" 10,924 2 Finalist 4 Nína "" 5,905 3 Wildcard 5 Matti Matt "" 5,634 4
Final
The 2020 final took place on 29 February 2020 and featured the five qualifiers from the semi-finals. In the final artists had a free choice in which language they could perform; three of the qualifiers subsequently performed their entries in English. "" by Iva was originally scheduled to be performed in English, however the authors subsequently requested that the Icelandic version be featured in the final instead, a change which was subsequently approved by the contest organisers.
Two rounds of voting determined the winning song: in the first round, the votes of the viewing public through telephone voting and the votes of a 10-member international jury panel determined two entries which would progress to the second round. The public and jury each accounted for 50% of the result in the first round, with the rankings of each jury member being added to the number of televotes cast by the public. In the second round a further round of televoting was held, with the winner determined by aggregating the results of the first round to the votes received in the second round. Following both rounds of the competition, "Think About Things" performed by Daði emerged the winner of 2020 and was selected as Iceland's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The full results of the semi-finals and the full breakdown of jury and televoting results in the final were revealed on 2 March 2020.
A number of guests performances also featured during the show. Stjórnin, who represented Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1990, performed their Eurovision song "Eitt lag enn" to mark 30 years since its first performance. The reigning champions Hatari, and 2019 Norwegian Eurovision entrants Keiino also performed during the show, with Hatari reprising their Eurovision entry "Hatrið mun sigra" with a children’s choir and Keiino performing their latest single "Black Leather".
+ Final – First Round – 29 February 2020 Artist Song Jury Public Total Place Result 1 Ísold and Helga "Meet Me Halfway" 17,170 5,568 22,738 4 2 Daði og Gagnamagnið "Think About Things" 24,289 36,035 60,324 1 Advanced 3 Nína "Echo" 15,286 6,515 21,801 5 4 Iva "" 18,426 19,072 37,498 3 5 Dimma "" 14,867 22,848 37,715 2 Advanced
+ : Kleart Duraj : Christina Schilling : Eirini Giannara : Klemens Nikulásson Hannigan : Regína Ósk Óskarsdóttir : Unnsteinn Manuel Stefánsson
: Alexandra Rotan
: Edward af Sillén
+ Song Juror Total 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Meet Me Halfway" 2,512 2,093 1,466 1,676 1,676 1,676 1,466 1,256 1,676 1,676 17,170 "Think About Things" 2,093 2,512 2,512 2,512 2,512 2,512 2,093 2,512 2,512 2,512 24,289 "Echo" 1,676 1,256 1,256 1,466 1,466 1,256 1,256 2,093 1,466 2,093 15,286 "" 1,466 1,676 2,093 2,093 2,093 2,093 2,512 1,676 1,256 1,466 18,426 "" 1,256 1,466 1,676 1,256 1,256 1,466 1,676 1,466 2,093 1,256 14,867
+ Final – Second Round Artist Song Votes Place FirstRound SecondRound Total1 Daði og Gagnamagnið "Think About Things" 60,324 58,319 118,643 1 2 Dimma "Almyrkvi" 37,715 42,468 80,183 2
Promotion